Meet Your Match
by kmacdonald
Summary: Katherine and her cousin Michael go on a road trip through the United States, but somehow also going on a trip through time. They leave their home in 2011, and end up in 1965, where they meet some of the world's most loved Greasers.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hi! I just want to thank you all for reading my little story here, and I would really appreciate it if you could tell me what you think of it. The idea for it has been running around inside my head for quite some time now, and I'm finally getting it out now. I really hope you like it, guys! **

I stood at the window, peering out to see through the old, warped glass of the century-old farmhouse. I looked past the neat barn yard and down the road, waiting anxiously to see the car coming. My bags were already packed and at the door waiting; I was more than ready to go. I tapped the window-sill impatiently, listening to the slow shuffle as my grandfather came downstairs.

"Is he not here yet?" he asked, his voice rasping roughly. He sat down at his spot at the table and began to cough, hard. I got up from my seat at the window and put the kettle on the stove for him, knowing that he needed a cup of strong tea, maybe with a small splash of whisky, to start the day.

"Not yet, Papa," I said, pulling the decanter of whisky out of the cupboard. "He'll be here soon; it's only early yet. Now, do you want this in your tea, or straight?"

"What kind of question is that?" He glared over at me, but I saw the glint of amusement in his old eyes, and I smirked and brought him a glass and the decanter. I came from a traditionally Scotch family on the East Coast of Canada. That being said, there was nothing that couldn't be cured with a shot of good, strong whisky.

The kettle boiled, and I made Papa up a mug of steaming hot tea, and his blister pack of pills.

"Here you go, old man," I said, popping them out on the table for him. "Now take them all, please."

"Do I have a choice?" he mumbled, but obligingly popped a pill in his mouth.

"You know that you don't," I grinned at him, throwing the blister pack away. "Besides, they make you feel good, don't they? Dr. Colburne said they would."

"Dr. Colburne," Papa said scathingly "also said not to take them with alcohol."

"Oh, go on with you," I told him. "You and I both know that a wee little dram isn't going to make a difference."

"I'll make sure to tell him you said that." The old man looked up from his seat and grinned mischievously up at me. I had worked with the doctor at the local hospital for several years as a receptionist, and sometimes as an assistant. We had differing ideas about alcohol used as medication. Still, he was like another father to me, and I respected him greatly.

"He already knows what I think," I said, cocking an eyebrow. "But if it's that big of an issue, I can easily take that glass back."

Papa quickly reached out and snatched up the carafe before I could get anywhere near it. I laughed and plunked myself into the chair beside him.

"Come on, now," I grinned. "You know I wouldn't do that to you."

"Aye, I do." Papa looked at me sadly for a minute before speaking. "Are you sure that you want to leave, Katie? You don't have to go, you know."

It took a lot of self-control not to roll my eyes, just then. "Yes, Papa, I want to go. And I'll be back soon. It's just a trip."

"Well, I don't like the idea of you going off by yourself with some young man." Papa looked me right in the eye, and I smiled reassuringly to him. He was still going to try every means he had to convince me not to go. I'd thought that we'd gotten over this, but apparently, I was wrong.

"Papa, he's my cousin," I reminded him.

"I know that," he replied. "It's just, I think you need someone older going with you. It's a dangerous world out there."

"I know, Pops," I said, patting his hand. "And it's nice that you are so worried. But I can take care of myself; really, I can. And Mike will be there, too. He won't let anything happen to me."

"I know you can." Papa patted my hand with his wrinkled, stiff one. "With your father's family, how could you not."

I frowned slightly at that. My father's family, known as the 'Aus Family' have been notorious on the Island for several generations. The boys of the family have all been known to drink; and when they drank, they fought. All in all, it wasn't the best reputation to have, especially when you weren't like that at all, like my Dad. He was a pretty peaceful guy, but Mom told me that when they first started dating, he got into a lot of fights just because of who he was. Papa had been completely against Mom dating him, and gave her the ultimatum; Dad or the family. Much to Papa's surprise, she had chosen my father, and, eighteen years later, here I was.

The way they were had some benefits, however. Growing up in a family like that, you learned from a young age how to handle yourself; you had to, or you got hurt. I could easily take on most guys, and come out on top.

And, man, could I drink.

"Let's be nice," I said in a low voice, and he knew I was annoyed. Another one of the Scot's traits, I was insanely loyal, and quick to anger.

He looked up sharply at me, and opened his mouth to say something, but stopped when he heard the sound of a car coming up the road. We both turned and looked out the window in time to see a bright red, 1965 Mustang roaring into the yard. I jumped to my feet, heart pounding. I couldn't remember the last time I had been so excited.

"Well, it looks like your ride is finally here," Papa said, glaring out the window. He got up from his seat and stalked into the living room so he wouldn't have to associate with my cousin.

Michael was getting out of the car and walking towards the house. As was custom, he opened the door and walked in without knocking.

"Hey," he said, grinning. "Are you ready to go?"

"Sure am," I laughed. "You want to bring my bag out? I'm just going to say goodbye."

"Alright," he agreed, bending down and scooping the bag up. "But hurry up, will you. I want to get out of here, soon."

"No problem," I assured him. "I do, too. It'll take me two minutes."

The door banged shut behind him, and I winced, scared that he had wakened Virginia, my grandfather's wife. That was one thing that had always annoyed me about Mike; he never really cared about inconveniencing anybody else. He didn't mean to be rude at all, he just always thought about himself before anybody else. That was a trait inherited from the Aus's; I was glad that I hadn't got that one. I was a bit more like the Somers' in that manner; more compassionate, like my mom.

Papa was sitting in his favorite leather chair in the corner, staring that the empty screen of the television. His hands were in his lap, absently entwining the fingers together. I frowned; this was an anxious tick that he had, but I hadn't seen him do it since my Nanny had died, almost three years ago. I knelt on the floor beside him and put my hand on top of his. They stopped moving, and he turned to look at me. My heart almost broke when I saw the tears in his eyes.

"What's wrong?" I asked, rubbing his hand.

"I have a bad feeling," he said, his voice thick. "I'm scared, Katie. I don't want you to go. I don't know why, but I just have a bad feeling about this trip."

I felt an unearthly chill run down my spine. There were several people in the Somers family who were prone to 'bad feelings' and they were something that you never wanted to ignore. Papa was one of these people, but the last time he'd had the feeling had been years ago, when my cousin was in a fatal car accident. We had thought he was going insane that day, as he's kept shouting at us to check 'the road not used'. No one had known what he'd meant until that night when my uncle found the car, completely destroyed, on the old homestead road, that hadn't been used in years. No one was sure why she'd been down there, but if we'd found her in time, she would have lived.

"I'm sure everything is going to be fine," I said, trying not to let him know how badly I was scared. "I'll be okay, Papa. I promise."

"You can't promise something like that," he growled.

I heard the horn honk from outside, and I sighed and stood up. "I have to go, Papa. I'll see you soon, okay?" He didn't reply. I leaned in and hugged him tightly to my chest. "I love you, old man. Take care of yourself. And don't let old Colburne tell you what to do."

A small smirk appeared at the corner of his mouth, but he didn't reply. I knew that he wasn't going to say goodbye; he was superstitious, and if he had a 'bad feeling' then he sure wasn't going to give me a farewell. I turned around, and was almost out of the house when I heard him speak.

"Stay away from the snake!" he yelled loudly from the living room. "Stay away from the snake."

I stopped for a minute, and then pulled on my Chucks, not having any clue as to what he was saying about a snake. I hated snakes, why would I go anywhere near one? Shaking my head, I grabbed my purse from the chair in the porch and ran outside, making sure to close the door softly behind me.

"Took you long enough," Michael complained good-naturedly as I climbed into the front seat of the car.

"I'm sorry," I replied, rolling my eyes. "You know how Papa gets sometimes; he just really didn't want me to go."

"Well that's just too bad," Mike said, backing out of the driveway, making sure not to back over any of the several hundred cats that lived on the farm. "I'm taking you away from this hell-hole of an island, and we're going to see the world."

"This side of it, anyway," I laughed as he took off, sending rocks and dust flying behind the car. "We'll worry about the other continents in a couple of years."

"Here we go!" Mike screamed shrilly.

"First stop, New York!" I laughed.

"I'm thinking of a song," Mike giggled in a girly little voice.

"Oh, God, no!" I cried out, laughing hysterically.

"Oh, yes," he continued. "It's a wonderful song. I think you're familiar with it."

"Please don't!" I covered my ears, but it was no use.

"_Da da dada da, da da dada da, da da dada DA!" _Mike began to sing at the top of his lungs. "_Start spreading the news,_ _I'm leaving today -_"

"_I want to be a part of it_," I joined in, still laughing.

"Come on," Mike cried, poking me in the nose. "I know you know the words. Two little words."

"_New York." _I giggled.

"_NEW YORK_!" We cried out together, and then laughed hysterically for several minutes.

"You are such a fool," he said to me after a minute.

"Me!" I cried, indignantly. "You're the one who started it!"

"But you followed," he told me, completely seriously. "I wouldn't do things like that if I had to do them alone, so really, it's all your fault."

"I fail to see how your logic works," I stated. "But I guess I'll let you get away with it, for now. Momma always told me not to make fun of the 'special' kids."

"I'll show you 'special'!" he cried, swerving the car all over the road.

"Stop it!" I shrieked, throwing my hands onto the car's dash. "I'll do anything, just don't hurt my baby."

"_Our _baby," he pointed out, pulling the car back onto the right side of the road. "Remember, I paid for half of this car."

"Yes, well, I think we've just proved who loves her the most," I sniffed, patting the seats comfortingly. "So she's mine."

"That is not the way it works!" Mike cried. We continued to playfully banter for the rest of the day.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Okay, I know that none of this seems to be even a little relevant to 'The Outsiders', but I promise you, it is coming. I just needed to get a little bit of background stuff out. And just as a little side note, I actually did live in Groton for a little while when I was younger. Not really important, but, hey, it's an author fun fact. Again, any reviews are muchly appreciated. :D**

Michael drove from the Island until we got to Fredericton. There we filled up the gas tank, grab some lunch at a local vegetarian restaurant, as well as to stock up our bag of snacks, and then I took over the driving for a while. We reached the Canadian/ American border in Belleville by three. Being summer time, we still had several hours of time to drive before dark, so we had decided to drive a little bit further before stopping to find a place to stay for the night.

"This sure is fun," I stated later that night as I pulled bedclothes out of my suitcase at our hotel room in Portland.

"Frigging right it is," Mike replied, looking up at the ceiling. "I just can't wait until we get to New York tomorrow."

"Me either!" I almost squealed. "I want to see _Phantom_!"

"Is that all that you care about?" he laughed as I ran to the bathroom to get changed. "We're going to _New York City_ tomorrow, and all you can think about it a stupid play?"

"It's a musical!" I called from inside the bathroom. "Not a play. And yes, I can't wait to see it!"

"Whatever," he laughed. "There are more important things for us to do, I think."

The next morning, we were up early again, something that neither of us was overly fond of. Neither one of us spoke much for the first few hours, but by the time we reached Connecticut, we had gotten into our first argument.

"There is absolutely no way we're stopping," Mike said loudly, looking at me. "What is the reason for it?"

"Oh, I don't know," I snapped, sarcastically. "I only lived there for a while. I want to stop for a little while; even just an hour."

"And what are you going to do in an hour?" Mike scoffed.

"Please?" I begged him. "I had some good times there! I just want to drive through town; maybe stop at Fort Griswold for some pictures or something."

He was quiet for a minute, but finally sighed, and I knew I had won.

"Alright," he said grudgingly. "We can stop in Groton; but only for an hour. I want to be in New York before night."

"Thanks." I sat back in my seat, smiling smugly. I knew I would win; I always got what I wanted, one way or another.

As promised, Mike turned off the ramp and into Groton shortly after noon. We stopped, first for a bite to eat, and then we drove through town to where the Fort was situated.

The town was just as I had remembered it; it was fairly small and quiet, with not a whole lot going on. I immediately fell in love again.

The Fort, also, was just like I remembered it to be. The monument stood tall and proud, just as large as I remembered it to be. Like usual, we were the only people there, with the exception of the people who worked there, and I was ecstatic. I walked through the big, wrought-iron gates and smiled. This had been my favorite place to come, as a child, being so peaceful. I walked leisurely through the small tunnel and along the inside of the fort, looking at the buildings, before moving down to the waterfront. It was so quiet; I could hear my heart beating.

"Are you almost done?" Mike asked, standing behind me with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Yeah," I replied, snapping a few pictures of the river before turning around. "Yeah, I'm ready to head out."

We walked back up the hill to where we had parked the car on the side of the road.

We'd been in New York for several days, and neither one of us wanted to leave. I had finally made it to Broadway to see 'Phantom of the Opera', we had spent hours walking up and down the streets getting hopelessly lost, watched entertainers performing in Time Square, and attempted to get into bars every night. We actually succeeded in this twice, resulting in two very hung over days for the two of us.

"I think we should leave," Michael said one morning as we lay in our own beds, blinds drawn against the deathly rays of the sun. "We're going to end up spending all of our money here, and never leaving."

"I agree," I groaned, turning over to face him. "I don't know if I can handle drinking every night anymore."

"_You _can't handle drinking?" Mike looked up at me, his jaw hanging open. "I never thought I'd hear you say that, Kate. What happened to my cousin who could drink a quart a night?"

"She's still here," I replied, sitting up gingerly. "Give me whisky or give me beer, and I can do it. Hell, rum or vodka will even do, but I can't handle any more of these sissy drinks that people keep buying me. There's more sugar than alcohol, and they're making me sick."

Mike laughed and rolled out of bed. "Let's head out now," he said.

I groaned again, but crawled out of bed and rooted through my bag for some clean clothes to wear.

We were on the road within an hour. I drove for the first little bit, while Mike slept in the passenger seat. I grinned when I saw that he wasn't awake, and slipped my favorite CD into the player. Before long, I was outside of the city limits, rocking out to the good oldies of country music.

We spent the next two weeks traveling down the Eastern coastline, and back up through the more central states. I had finally gotten to see Disney World, Daytona Beach, the horse farms of Kentucky and Virginia, the Grand Ole Opry, and many other things that I had wanted to see. Mike and I were having a blast.

I called my mother several times during those weeks. I told her everything that we'd been up to, and she filled me in on everything that I was missing back at home. Each call ended with her telling me that the family loved me, to be careful, and, because Papa made her promise to tell me, to stay away from the Snake.

Every time she mentioned it, I, again, got the chill that had nothing to do with the weather. Frustrated, I would shake my head to clear it and tell myself that I was being stupid to listen to what he was saying. I was safe enough.

After driving for several hours, I was starting to get tired, so we stopped in Columbus, Ohio. We grabbed some lunch, and then hit the road again. I curled up on the seat and let myself drift off to sleep.

I woke much later, screaming. Mike, scared shitless, swerved, almost hitting an oncoming vehicle. I sat bolt upright, gripping the leather seat with both hands.

"Jesus Christ, Katie!" Mike swerved back again, amid furious honking from all around. "What the hell was that all about?"

"I'm sorry," I gasped, still terrified. "I had a dream…"

"About what?"

"I don't know," I admitted, feeling like an idiot. "I don't remember what it was about, but it scared the daylights out of me."

"Yeah, me too."

We were silent for another few minutes, and I still couldn't shake the sense that something was wrong, that something was going to happen. It was like a heavy, constant pressure that wouldn't go away. I felt tears welling up in my eyes, and I brushed them back impatiently. Finally, I turned to look at my cousin.

"Where are we at, Mike?"

"Ohio," he informed me.

I rolled my eyes. "Duh," I sighed. "Where are we going?"

"Well, according to that sign," he said, pointing, "we are only ten kilometers from Serpent Mound."

"Where?" I looked at him, wide eyes, horrified.

"Serpent Mound," he replied, looking at me curiously. "Are you okay, Kate?"

"No," I almost screamed at him. "We need to leave here, now!" I quickly explained Papa's warning, and my own 'bad feeling', and he went pale.

"Okay," he said quickly. "I'll turn off the next ramp."

But it was too late. Before we knew what was happening, a fog began to roll in. Within seconds, we were encased in a dense haze, unable to see any other vehicles around us. Mike immediately slowed down to an almost crawl, so we wouldn't hit anyone else, and hoped that whoever behind us was doing the same.

The pressure began to increase, and I was finding it hard to breathe. I gasped loudly, and looked at Mike, who was looking back at me, his face pale with fear.

"Do you feel that?" he asked, and his voice was much higher than usual. "The pressure?"

I nodded, unable to say a word.

Mike pulled over, stopping the car on the side of the road, and we gripped hands. I had never been so scared in my life. From somewhere, there was an unearthly, terrible screaming noise, and I covered my ears, trying in vain to block it out. It increased in intensity, and then, with a flash of bright light, I passed out.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Thanks everyone for the reads! I love this! I hope you're enjoying this story, and that you'll keep reading. I do apologize for this chapter, it's not the best, and honestly, it's mostly a filler. We finally get to meet the boys in the next chapter, though, so YAY for that. **

I sat up slowly, my head pounding painfully. I groaned and opened my eyes slowly. I shrieked when I saw Mike's face not even three inches away from mine, and lashed out instinctively. I felt my fist make contact, and he cried out in pain.

"Holy shit!" Mike clutched his face in his hands. "What the hell was that for?"

"I'm sorry!" I cried, sitting up straight so I could see if I caused any damage. "I didn't mean to; you scared me."

"I guess I don't ever have to worry about you, anyway," Mike joked, checking his face in the mirror. Under his eye was already starting to swell, and I knew that he's have a black eye by tonight. "You sure know how to take care of yourself."

"I am sorry," I said, biting my lip to keep myself from laughing at him. "Why were you that close, anyway?"

"I was trying to see if you were alive, or not," he informed me. "You've been out cold for a while. The fog was gone when I woke up, but I didn't really want to start driving around until I made sure that you were still alive."

"Well, that's nice," I said, smiling at him.

"Well, you know," he shrugged. "I mean, what would have happened if I was stopped by the cops, and there you are in your seat, dead. I would get in so much trouble, don't you think?"

"Yeah, I can imagine you would," I agreed. "I'd love to see their faces, though."

I looked around us, and sure enough, the fog had completely disappeared, leaving us alone on the side of the road. I was confused to see that there were no other cars on the road.

"Weren't there more cars?" I asked as we resumed our drive.

"Maybe we were just caught in rush hour," Mike responded.

"Yeah, maybe," I agreed. "Oh, man, I hope we stop soon; I'm starving."

"There're chips in the bag," Mike said, handing said bag to me from the back seat. "They'll hold you over until we stop for the night."

I nodded, but didn't say anything. I ate in silence for a long time; the only sound disturbing the silence was the crinkling of the bag and the loud crunch of my chewing.

At some point during the day, I slipped down in the seat and fell into a restless sleep. I had dreamed of my family; Mom and Dad were crying while holding my younger sisters close to them, telling them something that I couldn't quite hear. The girls were crying too. I noticed, then, that the rest of my family was with them, lounging around my house. Everyone looked upset. I walked around, trying to talk to everyone, but no one seemed to notice me; it was like I was invisible.

Papa was sitting at the table by himself, his head in his hands. He, too, was crying; it broke my heart to see. I walked over to lay my hand on his shoulder, but before I could touch him, he looked up and his eyes bore into mine, as though he was the only one in the room who could see me. He shook his head at me sadly.

"I told you to stay away from the snake," he whispered, his voice cracking with emotion. "Now you're gone, forever."

"No," I said, squatting down so our faces were at the same level. "No, Papa, I'm fine. I'm right here. I'm okay."

"We'll never see you again," he said sadly. "You're gone to us."

"Pops," my throat was thick with emotion, so I was having a hard time speaking. "I'm alive; I'm okay."

"Alive, maybe," he said, patting my hand. "But not here, anymore. Or, not _now, _in any case."

"What do you mean?" I asked, but I noticed that the details of the dream were starting to get fuzzy. "What do you mean, not now?"

"Be safe," Papa whispered, and everything went black.

I slowly opened my eyes, groaning as the sun poured into the car. I sat up straighter, and looked around. The first thing I noticed was that we weren't on the highway anymore. The second thing, was that we were surrounded my old fashioned cars. The third, was that Mike was poking me painfully in the shoulder.

"Ouch!" I growled, swatting him away. "Would you stop, I'm awake."

"Good," he replied. "We stopped for food, and I think we need to talk."

"Okay." I unbuckled and got out of the car. Mike followed suite, walking right beside me as we entered the restaurant. As I looked around at the inside, I felt my face stretching into a huge smile. It was done as a 60's theme, complete with juke box.

"This is weird," Mike said, taking my arm and leading me to a booth.

"What?" I laughed at him. "A 60's themed restaurant? Come on, Mike, we have these back home; Gillis' just isn't quite this cool."

"It's not just the restaurant," he said, lowering his voice as a waitress walked over to us. She eyed us curiously for a moment, and then snorted.

"What can I get you guys?" she looked at Mike expectantly.

"Um, can I get a veggie burger?" he asked. "And a Coke."

"You want what?" she looked down at him as if he were insane. We exchanged a look, and he glared back at her.

"A veggie burger and a coke," he said, annoyed.

"So…you want a bun, with just veggies?" she sounded confused, and I couldn't help but laugh.

"No, a veggie burger!" I scoffed. "You know, a burger patty made from soybeans?"

"No, I don't know," she snapped, glaring at me. "If you guys think you're being funny, you've got another thing coming to you."

"Just fries and a Coke," Mike said quickly. "For both of us."

She nodded, wrote the order down on her pad, threw another glare at me, and stalked back to the kitchen. I watched her go, and then turned back to him, my eyes wide.

"What the hell is going on?" I asked him.

"I don't know…" Mike looked at me, and I thought that is was the first time that I'd ever seen him scared. "Katie, I'm starting to think that this isn't a 60's themed restaurant."

"Why would you say that? Look at the place."

"I know, that's just it," he said, sounding desperate. "Look around. Look at the cars, and the people."

Confused, I followed his gaze around the diner, and I finally understood what he was saying. The restaurant itself could easily be explained as a themed-diner, but the people couldn't. The booths were filled with girls in vintage dressed, wearing strange hairstyles. I gaped at them, and looked at the guys. Some of them were wearing nice clothes, but some were dressed in jeans and leather jackets, and had long, slicked back hair. I glanced at the window at the cars that were parked outside; our vintage Mustang didn't stand out at all.

"Maybe it's some kind of convention," I said slowly. I noticed that Mike and I were also getting quite a bit of attention.

"Oh, come on, Kate!" he cried. Several people glanced at us, and he lowered his voice quickly. "Stop being stupid; you know what happened."

"All I know," I snapped at him, "is that everybody is dressed as though they're all still stuck in the 1960's."

"Maybe they are!" he hissed. "Katherine, what if we are _in _the 1960's."

"You and I both know that's not even a little bit possible," I glared at him. "So don't even think about it."

"There is no other explanation!" he grabbed my hand, making my look at him. "Think about it, Katie."

"I don't want to!" I moaned, covering my face with my hands. Even though I hated to admit it, his explanation was the only one that made any sense to me.

The waitress came back to the table and gave us our food, almost dropping mine into my lap. She looked me over, in my dark blue skinny jeans and red tank top, and smirked as she walked away.

"What are we going to do?" I asked, looking down at my fries.

Now that we'd talked, I wasn't even a little bit hungry anymore. I picked up a fry and began to pick it apart. Mike sipped his Coke, but didn't touch the food.

"Where are we at?" I asked suddenly.

"A small town outside Cincinnati," Mike told me. "We've only drove for a couple of hours."

"What are we going to do?" I cried, grabbing his hand to make him look at me. "Michael, what are we going to do?"

"Can we go back?" he asked. "I don't know if I really want to; that was terrible."

I knew that he was talking about our experience in the fog. It seemed that he, like me, had assumed that it was what had caused it. It had hurt.

"Me either."

We were quiet for a couple of minutes, and then he grinned at me.

"Do you want to head out?" he asked.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"Anywhere we want," he told me. "Look, Katie, we've both decided that we don't want to do that again. Now that we're not going back, we can go anywhere we want to, and the money that we have will get us a lot further than it would in our time. We can do anything that we want."

I nodded. "Alright, let's go. We can just go wherever."

He grinned at me and threw a five dollar bill down on the table. We got up and walked out of the diner.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: I wanted to thank everyone for the reviews! They make me sooo happy guys, so keep 'em coming. Here's the next chapter; I hope you all like it. **

Despite missing my family, I couldn't remember a time when I'd had so much fun. Mike and I continued our trek across the United States, stopping for a day or two whenever we wanted to, and within two months, we had made it to the mid-western states.

I was driving, quietly listening to the radio. Much to Mike's disgust, and to my enjoyment, we were right in the middle of the 'good old country' decade. I was listening to Waylon and singing under my breath while my cousin slept in the seat beside me. He'd been driving for almost eight straight hours, and was exhausted.

There was a city ahead, but I was damned if I knew which one. Neither one of us had really cared where we were going, so we didn't use a map, or look at signs very often. It was always a surprise where we would turn up.

I broke the rule this one time and looked at the sign that I was coming to. Apparently, we were now entering Tulsa.

_That's cool, _I thought to myself. _Another place that I've never wanted to visit. It might be interesting, though._

That was one thing that Mike and I had discovered; it didn't matter how boring a place was, we had a blast anyway. We still hadn't quite gotten over the idea that we were in a time where even our parents didn't exist yet.

I drove through the city for a little while, admiring the huge mansions on one side. Then the town began to get grungier as I drove further east. It was starting to get dark, so I pulled into a gas station to ask where the nearest hotel was.

Mike woke up as I was parking the car.

"Where are we?" he yawned, running his eyes with his knuckles.

"We're in Tulsa," I replied cheerfully. "I'm going to run in and ask about a hotel for the night."

"I'll just wait here," he said.

I nodded and got out of the car. I hurried into the station, and was immediately met with a group of giggling girls. I cocked my eyebrow and waited in line, until I saw a young man walk in from the garage. He was kind of cute, and I smirked at him as he looked me up and down.

"You been waited on?" he asked me from across the room.

I shook my head. "No, not yet."

The man turned and glared at someone who was behind the desk. I hadn't noticed him at first, as he was sitting down on a stool, but when he stood up, I felt my face flush. So there was a reason for the girls. The guy who had spoken to me was good looking, but this other boy looked like he belonged in Hollywood, not in a small, dingy gas station in Tulsa.

"Way to go, Soda," the man yelled, slapping the other boy. "Think you could leave your fan club for a minute and do some real work?"

The girls who were gathered around stopped talking and glared at the first boy for a minute before leaving the station in a group. Then both boys turned to me.

"Sorry about that," the good-looking one said, grinning at me. "I didn't see you there. What can I do for you, pretty girl?"

"I was just wondering where the nearest hotel is?" I asked, stepping closer to the counter. My face was flushed tomato red, but I tried to ignore it.

"New to the city, huh?" he asked, still grinning, and I couldn't help but grin back.

"Yeah."

"Well, it depends on what your budget is?" he said, looking at me curiously. I knew that he was subtly trying to figure out where I belonged in society.

"Anything, really," I told him, leaning on the counter. "It's just for a couple of nights."

He nodded and thought for a minute. "Well, there's a really nice place on the other side of town," he told me. "And there's Buck's, and that's not far from here."

"God, don't go to Buck's," the first guy said. "That's not a place for a lady to be going to, Soda." He smacked his friend again.

"Wait, did you just say Soda?" I looked between the two of them with a smirk. "Is that a nickname or something?"

"Nah," he grinned. "That's my real name. Sodapop Curtis." He held his hand out to me and I took it. Instead of shaking my hand like I thought he would, he brought my fingers to his mouth and brushed a kiss across my knuckles.

I laughed. "That is the best name that I've ever heard. I'm Katherine MacLeod."

"Steve Randle," the other man said quickly, also taking my hand, but he just shook it. "So, are you staying here, or just passing through."

"Not sure yet," I told him. "I'll figure that out in the next couple of days." I turned back to Soda. "So, is there anything in between the 'nice place' and Buck's?"

"There's a small motel around the corner from here," he said. "It's really small, and it's on this side of town, so there's a good chance that it'll get broke into, but it's clean."

"I think I can handle that," I laughed, and both boys looked at me in surprise.

"But -" Steve looked like he was at a loss for words. He and Soda looked at each other and then back at me. I crossed my arms across my chest and cocked and eyebrow at them.

"What, you boys think that I can't handle myself?" I asked. I wasn't surprised; most people thought that. I was barely over five feet tall, and weighed a little over a hundred pounds. Appearances are deceiving; I could take care of myself in a fight.

"Well, it's just that…" Soda trailed off, and looked me up and down.

I laughed loudly. "Believe me, I can handle it. Now where is this place?"

I got the directions from them and headed out to the car. There was a group of guys walking across the street to the gas station, and one of them whistled as I hurried back to the car, causing the rest of the group to laugh and cat-call. For some reason, I chose today to wear a pair of skin-tight skinny jeans with a pair of red high heels and a plain white tank top. I didn't wear heels often, but when I did, they made my already ample behind stand out. And in those jeans, it was really obvious. I rolled my eyes and ignored them.

"Wait!" I was about to open the car door when Mike looked up at me. I leaned over and looked at him in the window. The guys behind me began to whistle and yell even louder.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"Go grab me a bottle of Coke," he grinned. "I'll turn the car and wait for you."

"You couldn't have thought of that before I went in the first time?"

He shook his head, grinning at me like a maniac, and I sighed, standing back up. "You owe me."

The group of guys who had been checking me out were inside the store by the time I got there; they were all talking to Soda and Steve. Steve looked up when I walked in.

"Couldn't get enough of me, huh?" he asked, his arms wide open.

I rolled my eyes. "Mike wanted a Coke." I nodded towards the big windows, where Mike was waiting in the car for me. I opened the fridge and pulled one out, then walked to the counter to pay for it.

"Damn, that is one tuff car," one of the boys said, looking at my baby with an open mouth. He kind of looked like Soda, but younger, and with darker hair. "Is that yours?"

The rest of them turned to look at me, all with the same look of admiration on their faces.

"Um…yes?" I handed Soda a dollar, and he hurriedly gave me back my change.

"Man, that is sick," said a guy with long, rusty coloured side-burns. "Not the kind of car that a broad usually drives."

"I'm not your typical 'broad'," I growled, grabbing the bottle of pop. "See you around, Soda, Steve."

Both boys waved at me as I stalked out of the store.

"You see that car?" I heard as I walked away.

"You see that ass?" The guy with the sideburns asked loudly. "Damn, that was nice."

I scoffed, and ran to the car, wiggling my hips more than necessary. Instead of opening the passenger's door, I grabbed the inside handle on the ceiling and hopped in through the window, Dukes of Hazards style.

"What are you doing?" Mike asked when I handed him his pop. "I haven't seen you do that since Chris told you that it called attention to your ass."

"Just putting on a show," I laughed. "Let's go."


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Okay, guys, so this chapter is a little longer than the others, but this is when Kate and Mike meet the rest of the boys. Let me know what you think. :D**

Like Soda had told me, the motel was very small, but it was clean, and that was all that really mattered to me. I could tell that Michael was a little bit more apprehensive about the part of town that we were in, but I could handle it. Although we were both 'Aus's', he most definitely hadn't got the fighting gene, and there had been several times that I'd had to step in to save his ass.

I began rooting through my bag, looking for my knife. Even in my own time, it was a rare day that I didn't have my blade tucked into my back pocket. I had been suspended from school a couple of times because of it. I hadn't used it on anyone, or even taken it from my pocket, but one day when perverted Mr. Gunn was staring at my ass, he's seen it, and had sent me to the office. I can tell you, my mom hadn't been too impressed with me that day, but I could tell that Dad was proud that I was taking after his family.

I sniffed a little bit, thinking about my parents, but I quickly put them from my mind. I usually didn't cry in front of people very often, and Mike was no exception to the rule. He came into the room and dropped his bad on the floor.

"There's only one bed," he said, looking at the twin sized bed that was in the middle of the room.

"Yeah, I know."

"Oh man, do we have to share?"

I grinned at him over my shoulder. "Only if you don't want to sleep on the floor."

"Why don't you sleep on the floor?" he grumbled.

"Yeah, like that's going to happen." We both knew that there was no way that I was going to be sleeping on the floor. Not when there was enough room for both of us in the bed.

Some people thought it was strange that Mike and I sometimes shared a bed, us being cousins and all, but neither one of us had a problem with it. We had always been really close; he was more like a little brother to me than a cousin. I promise on my life, there was nothing weird going on with us; we were just that comfortable with each other.

"You want to know something?" Mike asked, flinging himself down on the bed.

"Hmm?"

"I'm kind of tired of driving around all the time." He stared at the ceiling and refused to look at me. "Maybe we should stay here for a little while."

"I agree," I told him, sitting down on the bed beside him. "I kind of want to stay here for a while. I kind of like it, here."

"Oh, you just like the attention that you're getting from the boys," he teased, poking me in the side. I squealed loudly and wiggled away from him; my sides had always been extremely ticklish.

"Maybe just a little bit," I admitted. "I'm just not used to it back home."

"It's the jeans," he told me. "No one here in the sixties wears jeans that tight."

"I know," I laughed. "Remember that woman in yellow?"

Mike laughed hard at the memory. The other day, we had stopped at the mall, attempting to buy some new clothes to help us fit in a little bit more. A woman had come up to us in a neon yellow dress that looked like she was wearing a shiny yellow box, complete with matching hat, and she was trying to sell me an outfit just like hers, but bright orange. I had laughed in her face. Rude, I know, but I just couldn't help it. Needless to say, we hadn't bought anything that day.

We sat quietly for another moment, thinking about our adventures since we'd traveled through time. I really was having the time of my life.

"So what do we do now?" Mike asked me. "Should we start looking for a house to rent? I don't know about you, but I kind of don't really want to share this bed for too long. It's not that big, or comfortable."

"Yeah, we can start looking."

We were in luck. We'd bought a newspaper and flicked through the classifieds, looking for cheap rentals in the area, when we saw an ad for a house that was just up the street. It was for sale, for $3,000.

"Is this for real?" Mike asked me, pointing it out.

"Can't be," I said. "Can it?"

"I don't know."

"Well, we can always go look at the place," I said. "Call the man and see if it really is that price, though, first."

Mike nodded, and we hurried to a pay phone. Neither one of us had been overly impressed when we'd realized that we wouldn't be able to use our cell phones anymore; it'd had been torture.

I stood beside Mike as he talked to the owner of the house, and waited to see what he would say.

"Five minutes?" Mike said, grinning at me. "Yeah, we can be there."

He hung up the phone and took my hand, dragging me to the car.

"What did he say?" I laughed, dodging through the crowd of people downtown.

"He wants us to be there in five minutes to look at the place," Mike replied, jumping into the driver's seat. "So hurry up and get in."

Despite being a good ten minute drive way from the house, we did manage to make it there on time. There was a middle aged man standing on the front porch, smoking while he waited for us. I climbed out of the car, trying not to let my heels sink into the soft grass in the front lawn.

"Hi!" I called to him, smiling brightly.

He looked me up and down with wide eyes before looking at Mike, who was walking behind me.

"You called about the house?"

Mike nodded. "Yep. And you're sure that it's only three grand?"

"Less if you want it right now," the man said, again his eyes running over my legs. "I'm trying to get rid of the place; the wife wants to move to the country."

He led us into the house, and I was surprised. Despite being a bad part of town, it was a really cute house. We walked directly into the living room, which was separated from the kitchen by just one wall that went half-way between the rooms. The kitchen appliances were fairly new, and it was clean. There was a small bathroom downstairs, a larger one upstairs, and three decently sized bedrooms.

"What do you think?" Mike asked me. "Do you like it?"

"Yes, I do," I replied, smiling brightly. The man who owned the house was standing in the living room while we looked through the kitchen again. I could feel his eyes on me as I moved, and I couldn't help but smirk. I was really enjoying the attention I was getting in these jeans. "I really like it."

"What do you folks think?" the man, who was named Smith, asked. "You want the place?"

I nodded, smiling at him, and he grinned back at me.

"So, if you want to meet me at the lawyer's tomorrow," he said, leading us to the door. "I'll take $2,500 for the place, since you're taking it so fast."

I grinned even wider. "That's really nice of you."

Smith turned a delicate shade of pink, and muttered something under his breath. He locked up the door and quickly hurried to his car and left.

"He seems like a nice guy," Mike said, grinning beside me.

"We have a house!" I laughed, hugging him tightly. "Yay! I never thought I would say that when I was eighteen."

"Now we just need jobs."

"Whoa, big boy," I smirked, walking down the front steps. "Let's just deal with one thing at a time."

He laughed and went to get in the car, but I stopped in my tracks when I heard my name. I turned around and looked into the yard next door, surprised to see a shoeless Sodapop running towards me.

"Hey!" I greeted him. "What's going on?"

"Why are you here?" he asked, nodding towards the house.

"We just bought it."

"You bought that place?" he looked at me incredulously, and then looked at the car, where Mike still sat. "With your boyfriend?"

"No!" He took one look at my disgusted face, and burst into laughter. "No, that's my little cousin. Mike, stop being rude and come here."

Although I knew that he really didn't want to, Mike climbed back out of the car and walked over to where I was standing.

"Mike, this is Soda," I said, introducing them. "Soda, this is my little cousin Michael."

"It's just Mike," my cousin said, holding his hand out. "Nice to meet you."

"You, too. Hey, do you guys want to come and meet the rest of the guys?" Soda grinned at me, and I couldn't help but grin back at him.

"Sure," I said. "We haven't got anything else to do tonight."

I heard Mike groan softly beside me; he didn't really like meeting new people. I put a hand on his back and shoved him around the fence and into the other yard. Soda stood on the porch, waiting for us. I noticed that this house wasn't as well kept as ours was.

"Hey, guys, look who I found next door," Soda called loudly as he led us in the door.

I grinned at Steve, who had come out of the kitchen to see who it was. He grinned back at me. O noticed that he was now shirtless, and was pretty damn fit.

The other guys from this morning were all hanging around in the living room, looking at me and Mike. The guy with rusty sideburns stood up and walked over. He shook Mike's hand. I expected the same, but he pulled me into a tight hug instead; it was a little uncomfortable.

"Leave her alone, Two Bit," Soda said, smacking upside the back of the head. "Everyone, this is Katherine MacLeod. And this is…" He trailed off, looking at Mike. "Shit, what was your name, again."

"Mike," he said, sounding a little annoyed that they remembered me and not his.

"Right, this is her cousin Mike." Soda grinned apologetically at Mike. "This is the gang; Two Bit-" he pointed to the boy who had hugged me, "Johnny-" a small kid with dark skin and hair smiled and waved at us, "-and this is my little brother, Ponyboy."

"Sodapop and Ponyboy, huh," I said, giggling to myself. "Those are some different names, boys."

"Yeah, well, our dad was an interesting person," Ponyboy smiled warmly at me.

"Do I get to meet this father of yours?" I asked, still laughing. "He sounds like a pretty cool guy."

It took me a moment to realize that the entire room had gone silent, and everyone was looking at me.

"Our parents died a year ago," Soda informed me, the smile gone from his face for the first time since I had met him. "In a car crash. We live here with our older brother, Darry. He's at work right now."

I had never felt like such an idiot in my life. I blushed furiously, and looked back and forth between Soda and Ponyboy. "I am so sorry," I said quickly. "I didn't know-"

"No, you couldn't have known," Soda assured me. "It's fine."

It was quiet for a moment, and the awkwardness was thick enough to cut with a butter knife.

"So what brings you guys here?" Steve asked, finally breaking the tension in the room.

Mike and I looked at each other, neither one of us knowing what to say. Obviously, not the truth, that was for sure.

"We were just traveling," Mike said finally. "And we decided that we liked it here."

"Really?" Pony looked at us as though we were crazy. "You could be anywhere right now, and you chose to come to Tulsa?"

I shrugged. "We can leave if you want us to." He immediately flushed bright red.

"Are you going to invite them to sit down, Soda," Steve said, looking up at his friend. Soda's face flushed, too.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I'm not used to anyone other than this crew being here; I'll grab some chairs from the kitchen."

"That's fine," I said quickly. "We can sit on the floor."

I kicked off my shoes and placed them where they wouldn't get scuffed by the door if it opened, and I moved over to sit on the floor beside the couch. The kid named Johnny stood up quickly.

"You can sit here."

"Aww, look at Johnny, the little prince charming," Two Bit laughed, causing Johnny to blush scarlet.

"It's fine," I told him, sinking down on the floor. "I'm fine here. You sit back down." I was surprised that he actually listened to me.

We were sitting in the living room for some time, talking and laughing while watching Mickey Mouse on TV. I laughed when I saw it; I had always loved Mickey. The door opened suddenly, and two men walked in. One was tall and _really _muscular, with dark curly hair. The other was also tall, but slighter than the other guy. He had blonde hair, and the most shockingly blue eyes I had ever seen.

The bigger guy opened his mouth to say something, but then stopped and looked down, confused. He bent down to pick one of my heels up, and then looked around at the group of boys.

"Whose shoe is this?" he asked in a deep voice.

Before I could say anything, Two Bit jumped up.

"Oh, that's mine, Darryl," he said in a high-pitched girl's voice. He strutted over, swinging his hips wildly, to where the other man was watching him curiously and took the shoe from him. He lifted his foot up and tried to pull the shoe on. The rest of the guys, Mike included, laughed hysterically, but I was annoyed.

"Hey!" I cried. "Take that off; you're going to stretch it!" Two Bit stuck his tongue out at me and dropped the shoe on the floor before returning to his seat.

Both of the newcomers looked in my direction, and I grinned at them. "Hi, you must be Darry." He nodded in confirmation. "I'm Kate, and this is my cousin, Mike. We're moving in next door."

"To Smith's house?" the older of the two looked at me. "God, I thought he was never going to sell that place."

"Why?" Mike asked, suddenly suspicious.

"Well, it's just that nobody from this neighbourhood can afford the place," Darry explained. "And the people that have the money to buy it sure as hell don't want to live in this neighbourhood."

"Why not?"

"Why the hell do you think?" the blonde boy snapped. "This is the East side, kid. Not for the likes of you." He looked Mike up and down, taking in his spotless clothing, and smirked. I was pissed.

"Excuse me?" I stood up and glared at him. Now that they could see me clearly, both guys looked me up and down. Darry looked away quickly, but the blonde boy made a point of staring at my chest for just a second too long. I crossed my arms over my chest, and he smirked again. "Just who the hell do you think you are, that you can talk to him like that?"

He looked me deep in the eye and took a menacing step forward. Being used to this type of behaviour at home with the boys, I held my ground. I could feel the rest of the group watching us, and Mike was fidgeting on the ground beside me, like he couldn't decide whether to stop me or something.

"Who do I think I am?" he asked in a low voice. "The name's Dallas Winston, baby, and I'm the toughest hood around. Don't forget it."

"Wow, someone's full of themselves," I said, rolling my eyes. "I bet you aren't even that tough at all; I bet I could beat your ass to a pulp."

I heard a sharp intake of breath from behind me, and Dallas narrowed his eyes. Then, suddenly, Mike and Soda were standing between me and 'Dallas Winston'.

"Come on, Katie," Mike said, trying to lead me towards the door. "Let's go, before this gets out of hand."

Dallas let out a low chuckle. "You actually think she could hurt me?"

"I know I could," I snapped. Mike grabbed me around the waist and hauled me bodily to the door.

"Put on your shoes," he said, handing them to me. I pulled my heels on angrily, and turned to face them again. Mike opened the front door. "Let's go."

"Listen here, girl," Dallas started, walking towards me.

"Just leave her, Dally," Soda said quickly, again placing himself between me and Dallas. "She's just a little girl."

"Go to hell, man," Dallas said, shoving him out of the way. "I just have one more thing to say to you, little girl."

I looked up at him; even with three inch heels on, Dallas was a good six or more inches taller than me. Still, I wasn't scared of him. I just stared back defiantly.

"You'd better watch yourself. You need to know your place, or you're going to get hurt."

"Is that a threat?" I stood with my hands on my hips. He smirked down at me. I was pretty sure at this closeness, he could easily see down my shirt, but I didn't care.

"No. I'm just warning you. Little broads like you shouldn't be running around here, you'll get hurt."

"We'll see." I shoved past him and stormed out the door; Mike followed quickly behind me. Before he shut the door, though, I stepped back inside. "It was nice to meet you all; sorry, Darry, for starting that. No one talks to my cousin like that." I glared at Dallas.

"That's fine," Darry replied. "I understand completely. I'll see you around, I guess."

"Sure will." I flashed a winning smile at them and walked back out the door.


	6. Chapter 6

**Soda's POV**

I moved to the window and watched as Kate ran across the lawn and jumped the fence, easily.

"Well, that was a little impressive," Ponyboy muttered from beside me. I hadn't even realized that he was beside me. "I'm surprised that she didn't rip her jeans doing that."

"Man, I have never seen a girl like that before," Two Bit said loudly. "Too bad she's not a blonde."

"She sure seemed to like you, Soda," Pony teased, and I couldn't help but blush a little bit. She was, in fact, one of the best looking girls that I've seen in a while, and she had personality, to boot.

"I don't know, she was sitting pretty close to Johnny," I said, glancing at the boy. He turned a brilliant shade of pink, and I laughed with the rest of the guys. "And what was with the chivalry, eh, Johnnycakes?"

"I…just…didn't want her to, you know, have to sit on the floor," Johnny mumbled. "I thought it would be nice."

"Well don't be," Dally said, leaning against the wall. "Especially not to her. Stupid little broad."

"She sure seems to have gotten to you, Dal," Darry said, coming back from the kitchen. He smirked when Dally glared at him. Only Darry would have the guts to say something like that Dally; if it would have been any of the rest of us, we'd have a broken jaw about now.

"Little bitch thinks she can just walk in here and do whatever she wants," Dally growled, staring at a burn mark on the rug. "Someone's got to teach her a lesson."

"Just leave her alone, Dallas," Darry warned. "Did you look at her; she's tiny. It's not like she could do any real damage."

"I think we all looked at her," Two Bit hooted. "Damn, what a broad."

"And that's one tuff car, too," Steve piped up from his spot on the floor. "Almost makes me want to go slash the tires just so she can bring it in for me to work on."

Dallas smirked at him, but I think I was the only one to notice. Well, if Kate brought her car to the shop in the next couple of days, I knew who was to blame.

**Kate's POV**

After almost a week of furniture shopping, signing papers and hiring painters to redo the walls, it was finally moving day. That morning, I'd dressed in one of my dad's old sweaters that was _really _baggy on me and my favorite pair of dark grey leggings. I pulled on my Chucks and dragged my suitcase out to the car. Mike ran down the sidewalk to the car.

"We're all checked out?" I asked, crawling into the front seat.

"We sure are," he laughed. "Now let's go do this!"

I threw my head back and laughed. I'd thought that I was excited, but Mike had been literally bouncing off of the walls all week long. Even though he was a little bit dubious about moving to a 'rough neighbourhood', as he called it.

"_I just don't know if it's such a good place for a girl to be living," he said when we'd got back to the motel that first night after leaving the Curtis'._

_ "Oh, come on!" I scoffed at him. "You're really worried about me there? You know I can take care of myself, Mike."_

_ He looked at me then and shook his head. "I know you think you can, Katie, but you heard what Dallas Winston…"_

_ "Dallas Winston can go die in a hole!" I cried, throwing my pillow against the wall as I turned back the blankets on the bed. "I don't give a flying shit what that pig says."_

_ "Whoa, calm down, Kitty," Mike said, holding his hands up. "Sorry to get you so mad."_

_ "It's not you I'm mad at," I grumbled, crawling into bed. It creaked ominously. Jeez, I'd hate to try to get busy in this bed; the whole damn motel would hear you. _

_ "Really?" _

_ I looked up and saw Mike grinning down at me with a cocked eyebrow. "What?"_

_ "If I didn't make you mad, then who did?"_

_ "You know damn well who pissed me off," I growled, rolling back over onto my belly. _

_ "I've never known you to get so riled up by a guy, Kitty," Mike laughed, sitting on his own side of the bed. _

_ "If you don't stop talking you'll be sleeping in the car," I warned him. "I'm not in the mood for this."_

_ He just laughed and crawled into bed._

_ "Goodnight, Kate," he said, turning the bedside lamp off. I didn't reply. _

_ A few minutes later, a loud, frantic creaking started on the other side of the wall._

When we pulled up at the house, the truck from the furniture store had already arrived. The delivery men were waiting impatiently for us by the door.

"Took you long enough," the younger one said rudely as I hurried up to unlock the door for them.

"We're actually early," I snapped, opening the door wide so they could start unloading the truck. "So don't complain." I turned around quickly and saw that his eyes were trained on my bottom. I narrowed my eyes and stared at him. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

He looked at me then, and grinned sheepishly. "Enjoying the view," he said cockily.

"Well you'd better keep your eyes to yourself," I said walking closer to him. "If you ever want to have children, that is."

He nodded nervously, and hurried outside to help with the unloading.

Mike was standing on the front porch, laughing.

"What?" I asked, grinning. His laughter was infectious.

"I can't believe that I ever doubted that you could take care of yourself," he chuckled. "I'd be surprised if anyone will want to sleep with you, or if they'll be too scared to even touch you."

"Oh shut up." I grinned back at him.

"Where do you want these, Miss?" I looked up and saw the older of the two delivery men carrying a large box into the house.

"Just leave everything here in the kitchen and living room," I told him. "We'll do the setup, by ourselves."

"You sure, Miss?"

I nodded, and then hurried out to help with the unloading.

It had been twenty minutes since the movers had left, and I was still searching through the bags that Mike and I had brought in from the car.

"Where the hell is it?" I growled, searching through the last bag.

"What are you looking for?" Mike asked, sitting in one of the new chairs. I ignored him.

"Where the bloody hell is – oh, there it is!" I stood up, triumphantly holding up the small iPod dock that I'd been searching for.

"Let me just guess," Mike said smirking. "We're going to have a dance party?"

"Frigging right we are!" I cried. "Now, all I need is my iPod, and an outlet."

Within minutes, Mike and I were dancing through the house, discussing where to move the furniture while belting out the lyrics.

"Yeah, that's a good spot," I said, standing back to look at the couch and chairs that were sitting in the living room. "Oh, wait here it comes…"

"_Yeah, I never thought I'd be on a boat_," we sang together, dancing around the room. "_It's a big blue watery road; Poseidon look at me! Oh, never thought I'd see the day, with a big boat coming my way; believe me when I say-_"Mike stopped singing abruptly, but I kept on going, bouncing up and down while I belted "_I FUCKED A MERMAID_!"

"You did what?"

I spun around in shock, and saw Sodapop, Ponyboy, Johnny and Two Bit were standing in the doorway, mouths hanging open. Mike was behind me, holding onto the couch in a desperate attempt to stay standing as he howled with laughter. My face flushed hotly.

"How long have you been standing there?" I asked, trying not to show how embarrassed I really was.

"Since, you never thought you'd be on a boat," Two Bit informed me.

"How long did you know they were there?" I turned to Mike, who was still laughing.

"Umm…since 'I never thought I'd see the day…'" he chuckled.

"You are such an asshole, you know," I said before stalking off to the kitchen.

I heard the guys laughing from the living room as I danced around the kitchen, getting myself a drink of water. We hadn't gotten any glasses or anything yet, so I had to lift myself up onto the counter and hold back my hair while I leaned over the sink to drink out of the tap.

"What are you doing?"

I hadn't heard Johnny coming into the kitchen, and his question scared me. I jerked my head up, smashing it off the tap, and then rolled off the counter and onto the floor.

"OW!" I yelled, clutching my head. "Jesus fucking Christ, that hurts!"

"Are you okay?" Johnny was looking down at me, concerned.

"Yeah, I think so. I don't think I'm bleeding, anyway," I said, sitting up. I saw that the guys were all looking around the corner at me.

"What the hell did you do?" Mike asked, walking in.

"I fell off the counter," I replied sheepishly.

"Why were you on the counter?"

"Because I was thirsty," I said, shrugging and pushing myself to my feet. "And I couldn't reach the tap properly, so I had to get on the counter."

Two Bit laughed again. "Are you just naturally clumsy?"

"It was my fault," Johnny said quietly. "I scared her, and she fell."

"Well, nothing was broke," I said, grinning again. "I'm fine. So what brings you guys here?"

"We just thought that you could use some help setting up," Soda said, nodding to where the rest of the furniture was still sitting in a pile in boxes.

"Oh, yeah, that'd be great," I said enthusiastically.

We spent the next three hours moving furniture around, trying to find the best way to position things, and listening to music, which I still sang loudly to, much to everyone's amusement. Two Bit had figured out how to work the dock, and was flicking through songs until he found one that he thought he would like.

"What is this thing?" he asked me, running his hand over it.

"Um…a juke box?" I was uncertain how to answer this. "It's a special one. I think it's the only one in the world."

"Why do you have it?" he asked. "If there's only one?"

"My uncle made it," I invented. "He made it for me for my birthday."

"That was really nice," he said, peering at it. "Why -"

"Hey, Two Bit, are you actually going to help?" I interrupted, not wanting him to ask any more questions.

His head shot up and he looked at me, pretending to be offended. "I am helping!" he exclaimed haughtily. "I am supervising this, so no one gets hurt."

"Yeah, yeah," I muttered, walking away to start putting away my bags in my room.

Finally, all of the furniture had been put away. I glanced at the clock and saw that it was almost ten. I had been up since six, and I was exhausted.

"Thanks a lot, guys," I said, flopping down onto the new couch. "We never would have finished tonight without you guys here to help."

"It was my pleasure, milady," Two Bit said with a deep bow to me. He sat down beside me, and laid his arm across my shoulders. "Man, I am pooped."

"You didn't do anything!" I laughed. "Lazy ass."

"I choose to take that as a compliment," he said.

"Take it however you want to," I grinned, closing my eyes.

"You know what," Two Bit said, looking around at the place. "You guys have a nice place, here. Maybe I'll just hang around here more often."

"Feel free," I smiled. Then I opened my eyes and sat up on the edge of the couch. "Actually, do you guys want to come over here tomorrow? We'll have a couple drinks, play some games, and dance around, that kind of thing?"

Soda looked around at the others and grinned. "Yeah, we'd love to. Is anyone else allowed to come?"

"Yeah, you can invite a couple of people, but not many that we don't know, okay?"

Soda agreed and they left, dragging Two Bit behind them.

"Well, that was fun," Mike said, sitting down beside me.

"I can't believe you didn't tell me they weren't there," I said, slapping him lightly.

He laughed. "I didn't really have time to."

"Yeah, whatever." My laugh was cut off by a large yawn. "Well, I'm going to go to bed."

I stood up and stretched before walking over to the door and locking it.

"Night, Kitty," Mike said from the couch.

"Night, Mikie." I smiled at him, and then went to bed. I was asleep before my head even hit the pillow. 


	7. Chapter 7

I woke up the next day to the sun streaming through the curtain-less window. I groaned and looked at my alarm clock, which read 7:19.

"Okay, curtains are going up today," I muttered, dropping my head back onto the pillow.

After trying for a couple of minutes to get back to sleep, and failing miserably, I decided that it would just make more sense to get up and so something productive. I would just have to take a nap before our little party tonight, though.

When Mike finally woke up, I had already eaten a quick bite of breakfast, and was steadily writing out lists at my new kitchen table.

"What are you doing?" he asked, leaning over the back of my chair to see what I was up to.

"Writing out some lists," I showed him.

"For what?"

"These are things we need to get today," I said, thrusting the list at him. He looked it over, his eyes growing wider.

"We have to get all of this?"

I nodded.

"But I was going to go job hunting today," he informed me. "Can you go shopping by yourself?"

I rolled my eyes, but I knew that he did need to get a job, so I nodded. "Sure I can. But that means that I get the car."

"That's fair, I guess," he admitted. "What's for breakfast?"

"There's an apple and a box of crackers in that bag," I said pointing to the bag on the counter.

"That's it?" he sounded extremely disappointed.

"Duh," I replied, not looking up at him. "We haven't gone shopping yet."

"Well, let's get going, then," he said, ignoring the bag. "I want something good for supper, though."

"Whatever you say," I muttered, getting up from my seat. "Just let me get dressed, and I'll be back down."

Upstairs, I slipped into one of my favorite dresses, an above-the-knee mint green vintage number that I had picked up in a thrift store the year before. It was sleeveless, and had small white buttons that ran from the waist up to the top. I pulled on a white cardigan and a pair of white ballet flats. My hair was a mess, from being in a bun all day and night, so I pulled it back from my face in a ponytail. My bangs curled across my forehead, but I left them; they would just frizz again, later, anyway. Then I ran back downstairs.

"Are you ready?" I asked, entering the kitchen. Mike was waiting for me, and so was Johnny.

"Hi," he said softly.

"Oh, hey, Johnny," I smiled. "What are you doing here?"

"He's going shopping with you," Mike said, grinning at me. "I coerced him into it."

"That's not nice!" I laughed. "You don't have to, Johnny. I can do it myself, believe it or not."

"I don't mind coming," he said quickly. "I didn't have anything to do, anyway."

I shrugged. "Okay, then. Let's go."

I decided to be nice, and let Johnny sit shotgun. I crawled into the back, making sure that my dress didn't blow up, and settled into the backseat.

"So how do you like it here?" Johnny asked as we wandered through the aisles at the grocery store. "I know that you haven't been here long, but so far?"

"I like it," I smiled at him. "You know, I've always lived in a cold place, and I thought that I would hate the heat, but I do really like it here."

Johnny smiled back, and didn't reply. I hadn't really expected him to, though. I'd learned quickly that he wasn't a kid who spoke very much.

"Do you know where the hygienic products are?" I asked him, looking for what I badly needed.

"The what?"

"The – oh, never mind, here they are."

I pushed the cart down the aisle, but stopped when I realized that Johnny was no longer with me. I looked over my shoulder and saw that he was standing at the end of the aisle, looking extremely uncomfortable.

"Are you coming?" I asked him, and he shook his head frantically.

"I'll just wait over here," he mumbled, and walked away.

I smiled at how embarrassed he was; it was cute. I grabbed the box of tampons and dropped them in the cart. I walked along the aisle for another minute, wondering if there was anything else for me to get, but there really weren't a whole lot of options. I turned the cart around and headed back out to find Johnny.

When I did find him, I was appalled. He was with two boys, but I knew immediately that they weren't friends of his. They each held one of his shoulders against the wall of the store, and one of them was hitting Johnny. The other customers didn't seem to care in the least. Leaving the cart in the aisle, I strode over to them.

"Hey!" I yelled. The boy who was hitting Johnny half-turned to look at me, and smiled.

"Hello, beautiful -" He didn't get another word out, as I wound up and punched him in the stomach, hard enough to wind him. The other guy looked at me, shocked, and I glared at him.

"You want to take your hand off my friend?" I asked, nodding to Johnny. Immediately, he let go, and backed away. Johnny barely kept to his feet. "Good; now if either of you ever touch him again, I'll kill you. Understood?"

Both guys nodded, and hurried away from us. I turned to Johnny and laid my hand on his arm. He flinched a little, and I pulled back.

"You okay, Johnny?" I asked softly. He nodded, but didn't say a word. "Alright, let's get out of here."

As we were driving back from the store to pick Mike up, Johnny turned in the seat and looked at me. I was a little unnerved by the intensity of his glare, but pretended that I didn't notice him.

"You know," he said after a short while, "you're kind of like Dally."

"Dally?" I asked, frowning. "As in Dallas Winston?" Johnny nodded, and I scowled. "I am nothing like that son of a bitch."

Johnny smirked a little. "He's really not that bad."

"I find that very hard to believe," I told him, and he actually laughed.

"He's really not," he insisted. "Dally's just had a hard life. He's turned hard."

"A lot of people have hard lives," I said. "Not all of them turn out like that."

"No, that's true," Johnny agreed. "Dallas sure is one of a kind."

It was in that moment that I realized that Johnny actually _liked _Dallas. He thought he was a good guy; he idolized him. I rolled my eyes at the stupidity of the male mind.

"Why do you think that he's such a good guy?" I asked him after a couple of minutes.

"He just is. He'll do anything for you, if you're a friend of his. He pretends that he doesn't care about anybody, but I know that's just an act. He cares; he just doesn't know how to show it."

I just shook my head and laughed to myself. "Somehow, I just can't believe that, Johnny."

"You'll see," he grinned at me. "Someday, you'll see a different side of Dally." He was quiet for another minute before adding, "You know, you're the only girl that he's ever gotten mad because of."

"What, none of his girlfriends ever pissed him off."

"He's only ever had one girlfriend," Johnny informed me, as though he thought that I'd be interested to know. "That's Sylvia. They've been dating for about a month, but I don't think he really likes her that much."

"Then why is he with her?" I asked, before realizing why he was with her. I looked a Johnny and saw his cheeks flame up. I smirked at him; yep, he's an ass, alright.

"That just proves that he's a jerk," I scoffed. "He's using her for sex."

"No, she's using him too," Johnny said, and flushed a darker red. "I mean, she cheated on him when he was in the cooler last month."

"And he goes to jail. You just keep adding to the list, Johnny boy."

I ran into the liquor store for a moment, and came back out with two quarts and a twenty-four pack of beer. I wasn't sure what the legal age was here and now, but I hadn't had a problem with buying, so either it's lower than usual, or I look a lot older than I am.

Johnny gaped when he saw me. "You're not going to drink all of that, are you?"

I shook my head. "No, I just always need to have whisky in the house, or I go insane." He looked at me, shocked, and I realized how bad I had just sounded. "No, not like that," I assured him. "But I use it for everything; one shot every night before bed, and sometimes once in the morning."

He nodded, but I don't think he really understood what I was saying.

"Alright. Now we just have to pick up Mike and then head back to the house."

The night was kicked off with Pony, Soda and Steve coming to our place for supper. Darry showed up a little while later, and Two Bit arrived as we were cleaning up; he had already started drinking.

"I hope you're not hungry," I said, grinning at him. "Because you just missed supper."

He grinned. "You'd just leave me hungry?"

"I sure would."

Darry grinned and took a sip of the beer that he's brought with him. I smiled back and offered him some of my whisky. He looked surprised that I had it, and agreed to a little bit.

"Hey!" I yelled; drink in hand, as Darry and I entered the living room. "Steve, get your feet off my coffee table, now."

He pulled his feet back quickly and mumbled an apology.

Darry laughed. "You know, I think it's going to be good for these boys to have a woman around again. They might actually use some manners."

"What are we doing?" Two Bit asked as I knelt on the floor beside the coffee table.

"This is a little game that I like to call Kings," I informed him. "I don't know if you've ever played, but you will be sloshed in no time."

"Sloshed?" Pony questioned.

"Drunk," I grinned. "But not you, little guy. I bought some Pepsi for you; it's in the fridge."

He nodded and jumped up to get one. He came back with two, and handed one to Johnny.

After I'd explained the rules, and wrote them down on a piece of paper so everyone could see them, Mike and I played for a couple of rounds, showing them how it was done. Two Bit, surprisingly, caught on fast.

"Bitch!" I yelled, an hour later, pointing at Steve. "Steve, you're my bitch." He groaned, and took the drink with me.

Once the guys had realized that I wasn't going to keel over from drinking 'the strong stuff', as Soda put it, they'd decided to test my limits, and anytime someone drew a queen, I was automatically the bitch. I was starting to feel pretty good, when my mood suddenly changed.

The door banged open, and Dallas Winston strode into my house. He stopped and looked around, and slammed the door behind him.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, and I will admit, it was pretty rude.

"I heard there was a party over here tonight," he replied, smirking at me. "I thought I'd come check it out."

I opened my mouth to say something, but Mike stopped me with a hand on my knee.

"Just leave it, Kitty," he said. "Just leave him alone."

I knew how much Mike hated it when I got into fights, so I took a deep breath and turned my back on Dallas again.

"There's beer in the fridge," I called to him. "Help yourself."

Soda cocked an eyebrow at me, and then grinned. "You sure changed your opinion of Dally pretty damn quick."

"No, I didn't," I grinned back. "I just don't want to fight tonight, so I'm going to be good."

"Very mature," Darry approved. "Too bad the rest of you can't be more like her."

Two Bit stuck his tongue out at me, and I laughed.

"What are you doing?" Dallas asked, walking back in to the room with a beer in his hand.

"Playing Kings," Johnny told him. "Do you want to play?"

Dallas walked over and squeezed himself onto the couch between Ponyboy and Johnny. "How do you play?"

Soda and Steve explained the rules to him, and I hopped up to get myself a refill. I stumbled a little bit, and Darry had to put a hand out to steady me.

"You okay?" he asked. "How many drinks have you had?"

I thought for a moment. "Only four," I told him. "Don't worry; I'm good for a while, yet. I just tripped a little."

He looked at me like he wanted to argue, but let me go.

"Tipsy after just four beers?" Dally mocked from the couch.

"She's drinking whisky," Darry corrected him.

"Really?" he looked at me curiously for a moment, and then grinned. "Want to do shot-for-shot?"

"I don't think so," I laughed. "I'm not wasting my liquor on you."

I thought that I'd seen a slight flicker of anger in his eyes, but it was soon gone. He slowly reached out to the deck of cards, and flipped one over. A Queen. I'd been positive that we'd used them all up, already.

"Look at that," Dally smirked. "You're my bitch. Now, shots."


	8. Chapter 8

I woke up the next morning with a pounding headache. I opened my eyes and found that I was lying in my bed, still fully dressed, but tucked in with the blankets pulled up to my chin. The sun was shining directly into my eyes, just to torture me, I'm sure. I knew that I wasn't alone in the room; I could hear the deep, rasping breath of my roommate. Yawning, I sat up in my bed quickly; that was a mistake. I bolted from my room and ran down the hallway to the bathroom, where I noisily emptied the contents of my stomach into the toilet.

"You okay?" Mike asked sleepily, standing in the doorway.

"Does it look like I'm freaking okay?" I gasped, and I heard him snort behind me.

He left the bathroom, only to return a moment later with a glass of water and a bottle of aspirins. "Here," he handed them to me, and I accepted gratefully.

I placed the glass of water on the floor beside me and struggled with the cover of the aspirin bottle for a minute before it finally popped open. I poured several out into my hand, and popped them quickly into my mouth before Mike could stop me.

"Hey!" he snatched the bottle out of my hands. "What are you trying to do, kill yourself?"

"Don't be dramatic," I told him, chugging the water. My stomach revolted, but I managed to keep anything from coming back up. "That's my job."

He shook his head and placed the bottle on the counter beside the sink. He sat on the side of the tub and grinned at me.

"So, did you have fun last night?"

"Yeah," I nodded slowly. "Yeah, I did. Why?"

"I'm just saying, you and Dally seemed to be getting along much better than last time we met him."

"That's because I was drunk," I growled. "He's still an ass."

Mike laughed loudly, and I groaned, covering my ears. "Do you have to be so loud?" I complained. "How much did I drink last night, Mikie?"

"Well, before Dally arrived, you'd had about a pint, and two beers," he informed me. I nodded; I knew how much I'd had _before _Dally showed up. "And then, when you started doing shots, you finished off the quart, and started the second one."

"Just the two of us?"

"Two Bit joined in for a couple rounds, but he only had two or three shots," Mike explained. "And I think Soda's brother had another drink. But yeah, other than that, it was just the two of you."

I shook my head, but stopped quickly when the room began to spin. "Shit, I haven't drunk that much since prom party."

Mike laughed again, but toned it down when I shot him a glare. The night of my prom party, I'd gotten so trashed that I'd stripped down to my bra and underwear and run around the downtown are at three in the morning. I had then tried to make out with the police officer who was arresting me, and there were pictures to prove it.

"Oh, good times," Mike laughed.

"Shut up," I moaned. "What do you want for breakfast?"

"Are you up for eating?" he looked surprised.

"Yeah, I'm good, now." I was; I only ever got sick once after a night drinking, and then I was always starving.

"Well, Soda and Dally and Two Bit want us to meet them at The Dingo for lunch, so if you can wait for that, we'll just get dressed and head down to the diner."

I nodded. "Okay." I got up from the floor and started back down the hall.

"Do you want to wake Johnny up?" Mike asked me.

"Why can't you? I'm busy."

"He's in your room, Kitty," Mike laughed. "He's the one that tucked you in last night."

I frowned, and pushed the bedroom door open, and sure enough, there was Johnny, passed out on my bed. I smiled and walked over, placing my hand on his shoulder. Before I could open my mouth to say anything, he had flipped off the bed and landed on the floor, looking up at me with wide eyes.

"Whoa, are you okay?" I asked, surprised. He nodded, and quickly got up off the floor. "We're meeting the guys at the diner, if you want to come."

Johnny nodded again. "I'm just going to go home and change."

"Okay," I agreed. "I'll meet you there in a few minutes."

Although it was still fairly early, The Dingo was packed with young people who were running around and yelling with laughter. I cursed them all under my breath as we walked in; Mike chuckled, and flung his arm across my shoulders.

"How are you feeling?" Two Bit yelled to me when we walked up to the booth that they were sitting at.

I didn't reply, but just flicked him off instead. The guys all laughed. Johnny got up from his seat and let me slide into the booth between him and Dallas. I was so hung over that I didn't even care when the latter threw his arm around my shoulders. Mike grabbed a chair from the next table and pulled it up to the table.

"Nice shades," he said, pulling them off my face. I cried when my eyes were assaulted by the lights.

"Give them back!" I snapped, snatching them from him and slamming them back on my face.

"Oh, not so friendly," he smirked. "That's alright baby, I'll cheer you up."

I rolled my eyes but didn't say anything; I tried my best to ignore him.

"What can I get you guys?" I looked up at the waitress. She looked down at my clothes and smirked at me.

"A grilled cheese, and a Coke," I ordered. I didn't think that I would get a veggie burger here any easier than I had in Cincinnati. The rest of the guys ordered, and the waitress hurried away again.

"So, there's a party at Buck's tonight," Dally said, removing his arm from my shoulders. He leaned his elbows on the table and looked around. "Anyone interested?"

I shook my head immediately. "No way," I said. "I need to catch up on my beauty sleep."

"Yeah, because you're hideous," Two Bit joked. "Come on, it's just a little party."

"No way, not happening."

They continued to try to convince Mike and I to go to the party with them until our food arrived. The smell of their hamburgers was slightly revolting, so I tried to focus on my own food as much as possible.

"Want a bite?" Two Bit held his burger inches from my face, and I gagged.

"No!" I leaned away from him. "Get that out of my face; it's disgusting."

"It's just a burger," he said, taking a bite.

"Exactly," I replied, picking my grilled cheese back up. "I don't eat meat."

I felt four pairs of eyes boring into my head, and I looked up. All of the boys but Mike were staring at me, and Soda's mouth was hanging open.

"What do you mean, you don't eat meat?" Dallas asked.

"I mean, if it was alive, I don't eat it," I replied.

"Why?" Two Bit looked completely outraged.

I shrugged. "I don't know; I felt bad eating them. Really, what has a cow done to me, to deserve being eaten?"

Dallas laughed. Actually laughed, throwing his head back. He looked at me like I was insane. "Are you actually serious?"

I glared at him. "Yes, I am. I don't see what the big deal is; Mike doesn't eat meat, either."

Mike went pink under the stares of the boys. "I'm going to grab another Coke," he said, jumping to his feet and quickly walking away.

"Well, that explains why you're so small," Soda said, looking at me. "You must be starving."

"No, I eat a lot, usually," I told him. "I just eat lots of veggie. You know, carrots, broccoli, that kind of thing."

They just looked at me for another minute, and fell back to eating. A moment later, Two Bit looked up sharply.

"Uh oh," he muttered. "There's trouble."

Dallas looked over his shoulder, and smirked. I followed his gaze, and saw a group of five boys walk into the diner. All of them were wearing either a leather or jean jacket, and had slicked back hair. They all looked dangerous.

"Who's that?" I asked.

"Tim Shepherd and his gang," Dallas replied. "Probably out looking for a fight."

"I think they found it," Johnny said softly.

I looked back again, and saw that one of the guys had grabbed Mike, and had him pinned against the counter. Immediately, I was on my feet, pushing Johnny out of the way.

"Kate, wait!" Soda tried to grab my arm, but I moved too quickly.

I stalked across the diner in seconds, and ripped the hand off of my cousin's shirt. The boy who had hit him looked down at me, shock written all over his face.

"Touch my cousin again and I'll kick your ass," I growled, staring up into his face.

I grabbed Mike and pushed him back towards the table, where the rest of the gang were watching. Actually, now that I looked around, the entire diner was watching us. I felt someone's hand slap my ass, and I stopped in my tracks, eyes narrowed. The rest of the boys around me laughed loudly. I turned back around. The kid that had been hitting Mike looked down at me, smirking cockily. I smiled coldly up at him. I balled up my fist and gave him a right hook to the side of the head. He dropped to the ground, looking up at me.

"Don't ever touch me again, okay?" I turned and stalked away. I heard several people whistle and clap as I made my way back to the table.

"Hey." A hand reached out and grabbed my arm. "That was pretty tuff, yeah?"

I turned and looked up into the face of a tough looking hood. His gaze swept up and down my body before returning to my face.

"The name's Tim," he said, holding out a large hand for me to shake.

"Kate," I replied, shaking it.

"You new around here?" he asked. I nodded. "I could show you around, if you want."

"I think she'll be fine without your help, Tim." Dallas walked up behind me and put a hand on my shoulder.

Tim chuckled and shook his head. "Should have known that you'd beat me to it, Dal," he said. "You always seem to be near all the pretty little broads." He winked at me, and I grinned back.

Dallas looked at me, and his eyes hardened. "Go sit down, will you? Let me deal with this."

"Excuse me?" I crossed my arms and glared up at him. "I'm pretty sure that I was here first; why don't you go sit back down."

"Oh, Kitty's got claws," Tim grinned. "I think that I'm liking you more and more every minute, kid."

"Thanks," I replied, smirking at him.

Dallas tried to put his arm around my waist to draw me away from Tim, but I pulled away from him.

"Did you not see what just happened to the last guy who touched me?" I snapped at him. "Do it again, and the same will happen to you."

Both Dallas and Tim looked at me with open mouthed expressions, but I ignored them both. I grabbed Mike's hand and dragged him towards the door.

**Dallas' POV**

I watched Kate storm out of the diner, shocked, first that she had said that to me, and second, that I had let her get away with it. The entire place was watching me, looking confused. Growling, I stormed outside, closely followed by Tim and his gang. I stopped just outside the doors and lit up a smoke. Tim did the same, and with a wave of his hand, sent his boys away.

"So, that was one damn fine broad," he said, smirking. "Where did you get her?"

"She's not mine, Tim," I said, and immediately regretted it. His eyebrows shot up, and he grinned.

"Really, now? Well that's something, then, ain't it?" He was quiet for a minute, and then said, "She with that guy that Andy hit?"

"Nah, they're cousins." I blew the smoke out in rings.

"She's free, then. Good. I think I'm going to ask her to a movie tomorrow night." He pushed off the wall and walked away. He stopped and looked back at me. "That is, if you don't mind."

I shook my head stiffly, and Tim grinned. "See you later, Dallas."

My hand clenched into a tight fist as I watched Tim stalk over to where his boys were waiting for him. I did care, and Tim knew; otherwise, he wouldn't have said anything to me. Why I cared, I didn't know.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Okay, so I just want to give everybody a fair warning; this chapter contains sexual material. If you're not comfortable with that, you can skip it, as it doesn't really hold a lot for the plot. I just wanted to add it in. :D Yup, I'm a dirty girl, I won't deny it. **

We'd been living next to the Curtis' for less than a month, but I already felt as though they were family to me. Johnny and I had become really close, and he stayed at our house almost every night. He and Mike also became pretty close. Mike spent a lot of time with both him and Ponyboy.

I had been a little bit worried about Mike for the first couple of weeks. He had made the argument that it wasn't a safe place for a girl to live, but now I was starting to think that it wasn't a safe place for Mike to live. He'd been jumped twice since we'd moved in; once at the diner, and again a few days later as he was walking back from the store, just because he wasn't dressed like a 'Greaser'. Luckily, he had been close enough to be able to run home without getting too hurt.

Eventually, though, people began getting used to seeing us out with the gang, and we were accepted.

Tim Shepherd had asked me out to a movie one night and, despite several warnings about the boy, I went. And it wasn't half-bad. The movie, of course, was terrible; a stupid beach flick with girls in 'bikinis' that covered more skin than the dress I had on for the date. I'd had a hard time keeping myself from laughing. Of course, the night ended on a bad note when Tim got into a fight with a guy that had felt me up as I was passing. I had to deal with him cursing all the way home.

We'd gone out a couple of more times after that, and he came to hang out at the house with me often. He'd tried to convince me to go to Buck's with him a couple of times, as did Dally, but I'd heard about the reputation at Buck's, and I'd flat out refused to go.

I was sitting on the couch with a book in my lap when the door opened. I looked up, expecting Mike and Johnny, but was surprised when Tim came through the door.

"Hey!" I laid down the book on the coffee table. "What's going on, Tim?"

"Nothing," he replied, kicking off his shoes and coming to sit with me. "I just thought that I'd come and visit while I was in the neighbourhood."

"That was nice." I grinned at him and leaned in to kiss him lightly.

He had other plans, though. He followed my lips when I pulled away from him, and kissed me again. I smirked, and kissed back. I felt Tim run his hand through my hair and he pulled me closer to him. I gasped a little when he deepened the kiss, and his tongue invaded my mouth.

I had been kissed before, for sure, but never like this. I felt a jolt of electricity when his teeth grabbed my bottom lip, and I threw all of my inhabitations out the window. I pushed him away for a moment while I turned on the couch and straddled his lap. Tim seemed surprised, but he grinned up at me.

"That's my girl," he murmured before taking my lips again.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled myself closer to him as he grabbed my hips in his hands and pressed me against him. Instinctively, I ground my hips against his, earning me a loud moan from him.

I pulled myself away from Tim's lips and began working my away across his jaw and down his neck, alternating between light kisses and sucking, to lightly nipping the skin with my teeth. He let his head fall back as he groaned, and pulled me down tightly to him, rubbing me against him.

I felt a fire running through my veins, and I never wanted it to end. Tim's hands slid up my shirt just as the door flew open.

I spun around and saw Dallas standing at the door, his eyes wide with shock. My face flushed red hot. Then, his eyes were nothing but icy blue slits.

"Mike and Pony are coming over," he growled, turning to leave again. "Keep it PG for the kid."

He stormed back out of the house, slamming the door behind him. Tim and I didn't move for a moment, and then I quickly jumped up out of his lap.

"Well, Dallas sure knows how to kill the mood, doesn't he?" Tim joked. I couldn't even laugh; I was mortified. "Oh, come on, baby, come sit back down."

Tim tried to pull me back down onto his lap, but I pulled away.

"Stop it!" I snapped. "Mike and Pony are coming, you heard Dallas."

Right on cue, the door opened. Mike peeked around the corner before he and Ponyboy marched in, to check if we were decent.

Ponyboy looked at the two of us. "What the hell did you do?"

My blush deepened. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, what the hell did you do to Dallas? I have never seen him that angry before."

Tim snorted beside me, and I rolled my eyes.

"The little shit's just jealous," Tim said. "He wants this broad here for himself, but I got there first."

I rolled my eyes. "Maybe it's time for you to go."

He laughed, and stood up from the couch, trying to fix his pants so the bulge in the front of them wasn't so obvious. "Fine, I'll leave. On one condition."

"Oh yeah?" I laughed, looking right into his eyes so I didn't have to look at what was at eyelevel. "You have to come to Buck's tonight."

"I don't -"

"Everyone's going," Mike said quickly. "We all are."

"Well, not me and Johnny," Ponyboy amended, looking upset by this fact.

"Really? Everyone else is going?" Mike nodded, and I turned back to Tim. "Alright, I'll see you there."

"Good." Tim bent down and kissed me once more, his tongue skimming along my lips, but I wouldn't let him in with the boys in the room. He sighed and stood up. "We'll continue this later."


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Okay, guys, the updates are coming along now, and I am sooo happy with all of the reviews that I'm getting. I LOVE THEM! So keep 'em coming. Lol. **

I walked to Buck's that night with Sodapop, Steve and Mike. Two Bit was going with a girl named Karen, and Dally, apparently, lived there. Yep, that definitely helped with the bad boy image.

As we got closer, I could clearly hear the music coming from the large, two storey rancher house. I grinned at the sound of the familiar tune, and Mike groaned beside me.

"Really?" he asked, looking toward heaven. "This is the music we have to listen to?"

Soda laughed and flung an arm over Mike's shoulders. "Don't worry about it," he said. "In an hour you'll be feeling so good that you won't care what's playing."

"That sounds promising," I cried, skipping along beside them. I glanced down at my outfit. "Are you sure that this looks okay?"

I was wearing a _really _short, long sleeved white cotton dress with a pair of fishnets and my favorite red cowboy boots.

"Damn," Steve said, falling back to walk beside me. "You look real good, kid. Believe me, if I didn't have a girlfriend, you and I wouldn't even be making it to the party."

I laughed, and shoved him playfully. "Pig."

Out of all the guys, I had become the closest to both Steve and Soda. At first, I had felt a little bit weird around them, simply because they were both so damn good-looking. But I soon got over that, and they had become like the big brothers I had never had. Or, if not brothers, than really, _really _close friends.

Soda grinned at me and then walked through the door to the house. I followed him, still under Steve's arm.

I was attacked almost immediately by one of Tim's boys. I had a hard time calling them that, even in my head, but there was really no other way to describe it; they were his, and they were boys.

"Tim's waiting for you in the kitchen." He said, shoving me in the right direction.

I squeezed between people, making my way into the kitchen. Tim was sitting at the table, watching a group of other guys arm wrestle.

"Hey, beautiful," he grinned, looking me up and down. He took me by the hand and pulled me down into his lap. I leaned back against him and kissed the side of his neck. "You want a beer?"

I nodded, and he looked at one of his boys, who went to the fridge to get me one. He came back a moment later and handed it to me.

"Thanks." I smiled at him, and he grinned goofily back at me.

We sat there for about an hour, kissing and watching the other boys arm wrestle and argue. Tim kept trying to slip his hand up my dress, but so far, I had managed to keep it down.

"I thought you didn't do Bucks?" someone whispered in my ear. I jumped, and spun around to see Dallas standing behind me, his trademark smirk on his face.

"I figured I'd be okay if the rest of the gang was here," I replied, grinning.

"You want to play a game?" he asked, looking at the bottle of whisky sitting on the counter.

"No!" I cried, loud enough to interrupt Tim's conversation with another guy. He turned and saw me talking to Dallas. "Not happening, Dallas! I am not doing shot-for-shot with you again. I felt like shit after that."

He grinned, and nodded to Tim before walking away.

"You went shot-for-shot with Dallas Winston?" one of the other guys asked in awe, looking her up and down. "You don't look like you could handle much."

"Yeah, I did," I snapped, and Tim rubbed a hand calmingly on my leg. He knew I hated when people judged me for my size.

"Who won?"

"I honestly have no idea," I replied, smirking a little bit. "I was completely trashed. It was the night before I met you guys."

"Are you telling me that you knocked Andy down while being hung over?" Tim looked down at me in amazement. "Shit! That boy is one of my best fighters."

"You want to try some of this?" Tim's younger brother Curly held up a bottle of golden tequila, and I grinned.

"Damn right, I do."

I grabbed Soda around the neck and started dancing with him. He laughed at me, and picked me up, swinging me around.

"You having fun?" he yelled over the music.

I nodded. "I don't know why I didn't want to come here; this place is awesome."

"Yeah, Mike's starting to enjoy himself, too, finally." He nodded to where my cousin was standing, chatting it up with a pretty blonde.

I grinned, and pushed Soda away, hurrying across the room. I jumped onto Mike's back, scaring the girl he was talking to. She glared at me, and walked away.

"What the hell are you doing?" he growled at me.

"Calm yourself, lover boy," I laughed. "You can make it up to her later. But for now, come dance with me!"

Whenever Mike and I had gone to parties at our friends' houses, we had been the ones to get everyone else to dance. It was just one more gene from my father's family that we both inherited. There was a small, but sturdy looking coffee table in the middle of the room, and we climbed up to dance. I could see Tim standing with his boys by the bar, and I blew him a kiss. He smirked and nodded at me.

I jumped down and took a couple more shots of tequila before jumping back up on the table. Mike laughed at me as I began moving my hips slowly, dropping it down to the table.

I felt a pair of hands on my hips, and I turned to see Tim behind me. I smiled down at him, and he smirked back.

"Let's go upstairs," he said, whispering in my ear. "Come on."

Without waiting for my answer, he picked me up and threw me over his shoulder. I screamed with laughter when he slapped my bottom.

"Tim!" I squealed. "Put me down."

"Just one minute, baby," he said. "We're almost there."

He ran up the stairs with me bouncing heavily on his shoulder. I was impressed that he didn't fall back down the steps. He turned the corner, and stopped dead, almost flinging me off his shoulder as he set me on my feet. He pressed me up against the wall and kissed me, hard. For the second time today, I felt my blood ignite. I ran my hands up his chest and around his neck and pulled him down closer to me. Tim ran his hands down my legs, and then back up, pulling my dress up as he went. I grabbed it and pushed it back down as Tim opened one of the bedroom doors and led me inside.

He grabbed the dress again, and pulled it off over my head. I stood there in my underwear and bra, fishnets and a pair of boots as Tim Shepherd looked me up and down, licking his lips.

"This is going to be a good night," he said softly before throwing me on the bed.


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Thank you guys for the reviews! They are really making my day; reading them is like opening gifts on Christmas. I'm actually really glad that there is no one here to see me; it's embarrassing. So yes, here is another chapter. I'm thinking that this is going to end up being a really long story…what do you think?**

I lay in bed, my head resting on Tim's chest. I had been awake for almost an hour now, but I couldn't get up; Tim was holding me too tightly, and I didn't want to wake him up. Instead, I used the time to reflect on the previous night.

It was hard, and rough, and urgent, and meaningless. Not at all the way I'd had always imagined my first time. I looked up at the man sleeping beside me, and sighed.

"What's wrong, love?" he asked, not opening his eyes.

"Oh, I didn't know you were awake," I said, sitting up. He finally let go of me. "I didn't mean to wake you."

"Don't worry about it," he told me. "What time is it?"

"It's just a little after nine," I told him. I pulled the sheets up to cover my breasts and Tim laughed.

"Oh, come on, sweetheart. I saw them last night; what's the difference today?" He grabbed the sheets and pulled them back off me. I tensed as the cold air struck my skin.

"I should probably head home," I said quickly. "Mike's going to be wondering where I am."

"Okay," he said. "I'll drive you."

"It's okay," I argued quickly. I wasn't real keen on the boys knowing about this. "I can walk; it's not far."

"I don't care how far it is," Tim yawned. He crawled out of bed and I quickly averted my eyes. "I don't want you walking around by yourself. It's not safe for a girl; whether you can fight or not. Understand me?"

I nodded, and rooted through the bedclothes for my underwear. Tim went into the small bathroom that was attached to the room, and shut the door behind him. I took my chance, and jumped off the bed, pulling on my bra and underwear, and digging under the bed for my boots. I slipped them on, pulled my dress on over my head, and smoothed it down. I caught my reflection in the small mirror above the dresser ad groaned. My clothes were wrinkled, my makeup smudged around my eyes, and my hair a crazy mess on top of my head. I looked like shit.

Tim seemed to think otherwise. "You look really great in the morning," he grinned as we hurried down the stairs. "It kind of makes me want to take you back upstairs and do it again."

I smiled at him, but didn't say anything. I knew damn well that I didn't want to do it again; not now, anyways. I was having a hard enough time walking normally as it was.

"Are you still here, Tim?" Dallas walked out of the kitchen in nothing but a pair of jeans. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw me, and I blushed furiously. Well, so much for the boys not finding out.

"Hey, Dallas," I said softly, unable to look at him.

He didn't say a word, but turned on his heel and stomped back to the kitchen. Tim smirked after him, and led me out of the house.

The drive home was silent, and although it only lasted for about five minutes, it was nearly unbearable. When we arrived at my house, I tried to get out, but Tim stopped me.

"Hey, Kate," he said, looking at me with a grin. "So, I just wanted to say that I had a really good time last night."

"Yeah, me too." I lied. "It was fun."

"I was wondering if you would wear my ring."

I looked up at him, surprised. "You, you want me to wear it?"

He nodded. "Yeah. I want you to be my girl."

I was speechless, so I just nodded. He grinned at me and took his ring off. He slipped it onto my finger, but it was much too big.

"Here," I said, holding out my hand. He handed me the ring, and I reached behind my neck to unclasp my chain. I strung that ring onto the chain, and put it back on. The chain was long enough that Tim's ring hung just above my breasts.

"That's a good spot for it," Tim grinned. He leaned in and kissed me, hard. My lips were bruised from the night before, so I pulled away quickly. He smirked, and kissed me again, softer than before. "I'll see you around, Kitty."

I smiled at him and stepped out of the car. He'd disappeared around the corner before I'd even got up the steps.

Now that I was Tim's girl, he had decided that I should meet his family. I had hung out with Curly a few times when I was with the gang; but I had never even seen his mother or sister. They day that he's brought me to visit them, I had been a nervous wreck. I'd spent two hours on getting my hair and makeup perfect, and had changed my outfit four times before I was satisfied.

"Calm down, Katie," Soda had said without looking up from his hand of cards. He was sitting at the table playing poker with Steve and Mike. "You're just meeting the Shepherds."

"I know," I said, not breaking my pace. "But I just want them to like me."

Steve laughed. "Okay, good luck with that."

I looked at him, concerned. "What do you mean by that?"

"Old Mrs. Shepherd doesn't like anyone," he told me, flashing me a quick grin. "And Angela is just a plain old bitch."

"Oh no!" I sank down on the chair, discouraged. "What am I going to do?"

"Just be yourself, Kate," Soda advised me. "They won't like you no matter what you do, so just relax."

"You two are the worst at trying to help someone relax!" I cried. "I sure am glad that I'm not having an anxiety attack or something."

"What's that?"

"It's when -" I heard a honk from outside. I jumped to my feet. "Oh, never mind, I have to go. Wish me luck."

Unfortunately, Steve and Soda had been right about Tim's mother. I had barely got through the door when she began criticizing me. She picked at everything; my hair, my dress (which was both too short, and too long, somehow), my shoes, my name, and she called me down to the very lowest. And the worst part was that Tim had stood there beside me and hadn't said a single word in defense. Then the woman had stormed out of the house.

Angela, too, had acted as predicted. She looked like she was a tough girl; hell, she looked like a female version of Tim. What had surprised me about her, was that the girl, who was a year and a half younger than I was, had a kid. She had run down the stairs and thrust the small boy at Tim before walking to the door.

"Where are you going?" he asked, holding the baby as though it might explode any minute. I fought down the urge to snatch the child from him.

"Out with friends," she snapped. "And you're on baby duty."

"I'm with my girlfriend!" he was outraged.

"Well she can help," the girl had sneered. "God knows, she's going to need practice. We Shepherds sure know how to make babies."

And with that, she was gone.

"Jesus Christ," he growled. "What the hell am I going to do with this thing?"

"It's not a thing, Tim, it's a baby," I smirked. "And you're going to hurt him by holding him like that."

"Do you know what to do with him?" he looked surprised. "You don't really strike me as the motherly type."

I glared at him and plucked the now squirming baby out of his hands. I had always been proud of the fact that I was the motherly type. I cuddled the child against my chest, and he curled up in a small bundle and went to sleep. I continued to rub his back gently, rocking back and forth.

"Don't let Angel see you do that," he warned me. "You'd never get rid of him."

"Oh, I wouldn't mind," I said softly, looking down at the sleeping face on my shoulder. "He's sweet."

Tim had rolled his eyes and laid down on the couch, falling asleep almost instantly. I sniggered and continued to walk around the house, bouncing the baby and looking around. The house was really dirty, and the walls were bare, with no form of decoration anywhere. I had never felt more uncomfortable in my life. I gingerly sat down on a chair.

Finally, Tim's mom came home and took the baby from me. I poked him until he woke up, and I told him that I was ready to go. He grunted, and got up. The drive home was completely silent.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: Okay guys, so this chapter is a little bit rough; I've had a hell of a time trying to get it out in the right words, and I apologize, because I know that I haven't done it well. At all. So, again, I'm sorry. **

Tim and I had been dating for a month, and I hadn't seen Dallas since that morning at Buck's. I didn't really care whether I saw him or not, but Mike was starting to wonder why I never went to the Curtis' anymore, or why when they came over to our place, Dallas left. Apparently he hadn't told anyone about me staying with Tim. I really appreciated it. I would have had the mickey torn out of me if Two Bit had found out, and Soda and Steve wouldn't be impressed at all. I still hadn't told any of them that Tim and I were dating; his ring always stayed hidden under my shirt.

I pulled on my chain until the ring popped out the top of my shirt. I held it in my hand, examining it. It was big and clunky and, now that I really looked at it, there looked to be blood along the edge of it. Ew.

The front door banged open, and I jumped, hastily dropping the ring back down my shirt. I didn't have to hide it, though. Tim walked into the house, grinning from ear to ear.

"What are you so happy about?" I asked, looking at him nervously. The only time I had ever seen him this happy was when he and Curly had recounted, in great detail, the time they dissected a stray cat.

"We're going out!" he cried. "Come on, you have to change out of those clothes." He eyed my skirt and tank with amusement.

"Wait, where are we going?" I asked. "What should I wear?"

"We're going to the races," he told me, pushing me towards the stairs.

"Races?"

"Horse races," he said impatiently. "Hurry up, I want to get going."

I ran up to my room, suddenly very excited. I hadn't been on a horse in years, and I didn't expect to ride today, but even being there was going to be exciting. I pulled on the jeans that I'd had on the day that we arrived in Tulsa, and a plaid shirt that I left unbuttoned over a grey tank top. I pulled me boots on, and ran back down the stairs.

"That was fast," Tim said, looking impressed. "Angela always takes a good twenty minutes to change her clothes.

"Well, I'm not Angela," I smiled. "Now let's go."

I was surprised to see the rest of the gang, Mike included, standing at the side of the arena, cheering.

"Thanks for inviting me, guys," I said, jumping on Mike's back.

"Sorry," he said softly, throwing an arm around my shoulders. "It's just that -"

I saw a flash of blonde hair go by on the bronco, and I pushed Darry out of the way so I could see better. Two Bit laughed.

"Is that Dallas?" I cried as the rider flew through the air and landed heavily on his side. The rider jumped up and jumped over the side of the fence to avoid being trampled.

"Sure is," Soda replied. "He's riding for Buck."

"I didn't know Dallas could ride," I muttered thoughtfully.

"This is how he makes his money," Johnny said quietly, watching admiringly as Dallas was loaded onto another horse.

"I didn't know that he did make honest money," I replied, and Tim sniggered behind me.

"I think that he prefers that you didn't know that," he said, taking my arm and pulling me away from my friends. "Those are some nice jeans you have on. Do you want to go take them off in the car?"

"No," I replied, shaking him off. "I came to watch this."

Tim looked surprised that I had turned him down, but didn't say another word as I moved back to the fence to watch.

I had never been to a rodeo before, and I was enthralled. Dallas rode several times, managing to stay on his mount for the predetermined time each round, and then he disappeared from view.

"Pretty cool, huh?" Johnny said.

"This is awesome!" I laughed. "I wish there was barrel racing."

"There is," he replied.

"Oh sorry, I wish that I could ride in the barrel races," I amended.

"You can ride?"

I turned and saw Dallas coming up behind us, scowling at Tim. Tim smirked back at him and punched him, none too lightly, in the shoulder.

"She sure can." Tim laughed. I knew, as did everyone else, that he wasn't talking about horses. The guys all turned to look at me, disturbed, and Dallas' jaw clenched tight. I felt my face flush red hot, and I glared at him. He shrugged and leaned back against the fence again.

"Yes, I can ride _horses_," I said. "I've been racing since I was seven."

"Excuse me?" A short, fat man pushed through the group and looked me up and down. "Did you just say that you can barrel race?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "I haven't done it in a while, but I can."

"How much do you want?" he asked, confusing me.

"You might want to explain yourself, Bill," Dallas said, looking at the man with a smirk. "The lady isn't all that bright."

I glared at him, and Dallas winked back. I couldn't help but grin and shake my head. Tim looked at me and frowned with cold eyes. The man named Bill seemed not to notice the exchange between us, and began his explanation.

"I had my son-in-law here to race for me," he said. "But he and I got into it, and he left. Now I have a horse, but no rider, and it's too late to pull out. I'll pay you well for it, if you win."

I thought for a second, and then nodded. "Yeah, okay. Where's this horse? I need to get a feel for him.

I sat on top of the mountain named Colt, trying not to notice how far away I was from the ground. When I'd said I would ride the horse, I had been expecting, well, a **horse**, not a mammoth. The beast was easily 16.3 hh, and had a huge, round belly that I could barely get my legs around. And I was supposed to win on this thing.

_Forget winning_, the rational part of my mind said. _Just try not to get killed by falling off. _

I waited anxiously, holding the horse back until the gate opened, and then we were flying. The roundness of the gelding belied his speed; he had to be the fast horse that I had ever ridden. And suddenly, I wasn't scared any more. The adrenaline pumped through my veins, and I leaned forward, urging him on faster.

We came to the first barrel and circled it, not even close to touching it.

_Tighter turns, _I thought to myself. _Keep those turns nice and tight._

We came to the next barrel, and we barely made it by without touching. I grinned as we galloped towards the last barrel. As we made the turn, I felt the toe of my boot hit the barrel, but I didn't look back. I kicked Colt into a full-out gallop and exited the arena.

Mike, Sodapop and Steve were waiting with Bill when I pulled Colt up to a stop. I jumped off, handed the reins to the young boy who was taking him back to the barn, and shook my head as I walked over to them.

"I'm sorry," I said, truly feeling bad. "I did tell you that I hadn't ridden in a while."

"What are you talking about?" Bill cried, hugging me. "That was the best riding I've seen in years! I'll admit that I was a bit skeptical about it, you being so small, but whoo whee, little girl, you sure can handle a horse."

"But I knocked the last barrel." We began to walk back to the other arena, where they were still riding the broncos.

"You hit it," he said, grinning at me. "It didn't fall."

"Are you serious?" I jumped up and down, clapping like a child. "So, I did okay?"

"Here," Bill said, handing me a roll of bills. "I am so sure that we won that I'll pay you now. Fifty bucks."

I looked at the money in my hand and grinned. "Thank you so much!"

What happened next seemed to happen in slow motion. I heard yelling coming from the arena, and people screaming from the crowd. I jumped up onto the side of the arena and gasped. There was someone lying motionless in the middle of the arena, covered in blood. Someone with blonde hair.


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: Hey guys! Thanks soo much for the reviews; they're awesome. I'm glad to know that everyone is really liking this story. I'm going to try to update once more before I go to bed, but if I don't, it'll be up first thing in the morning. Please keep reviewing; send me ideas and thoughts on the story, if you want to. If I like them, I might incorporate them somehow. Thanks again. **

I watched as Dally was loaded into the ambulance. Tim had his arms around my waist; that was the only thing that was keeping me from crying right now. The rest of the gang hung back, looking scared. Even Darry looked worried. I think that scared me more than anything.

"Come on, let's go." Tim whispered in my ear. I nodded, and followed him to the car.

I got in and didn't say a word. Tim started the car and peeled out of the parking lot, sending rocks flying. My hands were slapping restlessly on my thighs and, although I wasn't overly religious, I was praying to God that Dallas was going to be okay.

Tim's hand held mine so I couldn't move them. "Do you want to stop that," he said. "It's getting annoying."

"Sorry," I replied, pulling my hands away and holding them together to stop the shaking. "It's a stress reliever."

"Do you know what else relieves stress?" Tim leered at me, winking. I glared at him, disgusted.

"Are you fucking serious?" I snapped when I'd finally found my voice. I was fuming. "Your friend is in the damn hospital, and you want to go home and screw?"

"Well, we don't really have to go home," he chuckled, his hand rubbing up and down my leg. "We haven't done it in the car yet."

I looked at him for another moment, trying to decide whether he was being serious or not, but he didn't change is expression. Finally, I shook my head, revolted, and shoved his hand off my leg.

"Stop the car," I said, not looking at him.

"What?"

"I said stop the fucking car!" I yelled. "Now, Tim."

He did as I said, and I opened the door and got out, slamming it shut behind me. I began walking down the street towards the hospital. It was on the other side of town, but I would rather walk there than sit in the car with him for another minute.

"Katie!" Tim put the car in park, and ran after me. "Where the hell do you think you're going?"

"The hospital," I growled at him.

"Baby, get back in the car," he said. I didn't reply and kept walking, so he grabbed my arm and spun me around. "Katie, go get in the fucking car; I'll drive you."

"No," I replied, ripping my arm out of his grip. "Leave me alone, Tim. I'm so pissed at you right now it's not even funny."

He opened his mouth to argue, but shut it again and glared down at me. "Fine, bitch. Walk there; see if I care."

Tim got back into his car and sped off, squealing the tires. I glared at the car until it was out of sight, and then started walking again.

I arrived at the hospital two hours later, with aching feet and a sunburn. To say the least, I was not in the best mood when I walked through the doors.

"Excuse me," I said to the woman behind the front desk. "Could you tell me where Dallas Winston is?"

"Mr. Winston is in critical condition," she said, without looking up. "He is not to have visitors, other than family."

"Look, just tell me where he is," I said, starting to lose my patience. "I just walked two hours to get here, now tell me where he is."

She looked up at me in surprise. "This guy must be some loved," she muttered, searching through the cabinet for his file. "A group of guys came in right after he did, demanding to see him. You guys must all really love him." She smirked at me.

I rolled my eyes, but thanked her when she directed me down the hall to the trauma department.

"Where the hell have you been?"

I looked to the waiting room and saw that the entire gang was there. Ponyboy glared at me.

"What do you mean?" I asked. "Is he okay?"

"We don't know yet," Darry replied.

"It took you long enough to get here," Pony accused. "Where were you?"

"Well excuse me," I snarled, my temper finally getting the best of me. "You walk from the rodeo grounds to here in the hot sun and tell me how long it takes you."

Every one stopped what they were doing and looked at me like I was insane. I glared around at them all, and when no one said anything, I sighed and slid into a chair between Darry and Two Bit to wait.

"How is he?" I asked quietly.

"We're not sure," Steve replied. "The doctors won't tell us anything, because we're 'not family'. All we know is that he's in surgery right now."

I swallowed the lump that was quickly rising in my throat, and leaned forward in the chair, my elbows resting on my knees and my chin resting in my hands. One leg bounced restlessly, but I didn't try to stop it; I was too worried to care.

After a moment, a small, pretty blonde nurse walked into the room. Everyone's heads shot up, looking at her expectantly. She smiled nervously, and then looked at me.

"Excuse me," she asked hesitantly. "But are you Katie?"

I looked at her, confused. "Yes."

She smiled reassuringly at me. "Could I talk to you for a moment? Alone?"

I nodded and got up from my chair. The guys were watching me with interest, but I walked past without looking at them and followed the nurse to the other side of the waiting room so the guys couldn't hear what she was going to say.

"Is he okay?" I asked before the nurse could speak. "Dallas, is he okay? Is he out of surgery?"

"Yes, he's out," she said, smiling at me kindly. "He's been banged up pretty badly. Almost all of the ribs on his left side have been crushed, and his lung was punctured by the horn, but he's in stable condition right now, and just starting to come around from the anaesthetic."

I breathed a sigh of relief, and she smiled at me.

"How much longer until we can see him?" I asked.

"Probably about another hour or two," she replied. "The doctor wants to have him completely checked over when he wakes up."

I nodded and looked at the guys, who were watching us intently. I smiled at them, to let them know that everything was okay.

"I'm not supposed to be telling you any of this," she said, shrugging. "But I figured that you're probably the closest thing to family that the poor boy's got."

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

She frowned back at me in confusion. "Are you not his girlfriend?"

"No!" I barked a short, humorless laugh. "God, no. Dallas and I don't really get along that well."

"Oh." She looked even more confused, and a little bit flustered. "Oh, I'm sorry for the misunderstanding."

"What would make you think that?" I asked.

She bit her lip for a moment, and smiled sheepishly. "Well, it's just that he's been saying your name in his sleep."

I stared at her, my face completely blank. "And the guys' too, right?"

She shook her head. "No, just yours. So that's why I assumed…" She grinned and my apologetically.

"It's fine," I said, shaking my head slowly. Why was he saying my name?

_Probably cussing you out, _I thought. I smirked at that; yeah, that was it.

There was shouting coming from down the hall, and the nurse looked quickly down the hall. A doctor and two nurses hurried down the hall and into the room, only to be greeted by a massive amount of swearing. One of the nurses, this one older and burlier than the one I was talking to, glared at us.

"Maggie!" she called from outside Dallas' door. "We're going to need you in here."

The young woman in front of me nodded quickly and, looking apprehensive, started down the hallway.

"Hey!" I called, and she stopped and looked back at me. "Tell him that I said if he doesn't behave, I'm going to go down there and kick his ass."

She grinned at me. "I'll make sure to tell him."

I grinned back at her and went back to sit down in my chair while she hurried into Dally's room.

"What was that about?" Soda asked. Everyone was watching me, waiting for an answer. I shrugged.

"Nothing much," I replied, yawning. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to take a quick nap; all of this excitement has worn me right out. Wake me up when we're allowed to go visit him." I sunk down in my chair and leaned my head against Two Bit's shoulder, and slipped easily into a light sleep.


	14. Chapter 14

Darry's hand was on my arm, shaking gently to wake me up. I sat up stiffly and peered around at my surroundings, trying to figure out where in the hell I was. I was in a large, plain, chair filled room that smelled way too sanitary for my liking. It was completely empty except for the gang and myself. And then I remembered: we were at the hospital.

Two Bit grinned when I caught his eye.

"Man, I never expected you to be the snoring type," he chuckled, and the rest of the gang laughed with him. Despite my efforts, my face turned fire-engine red.

"Oh shut up," I snapped. "It's only when I sleep sitting up."

"Oh no it's not," Mike grinned. I flipped him off, and Two Bit laughed even harder.

"How long have I been asleep for?" I asked, looking around for a clock.

Darry glanced down at his watch. "It's almost seven, now. So about two hours."

"Holy crap!" I cried. "Why didn't anyone wake me up?"

"You looked tired," Soda shrugged. Then he grinned and arched one eyebrow suggestively. "Mike told us that you weren't getting much sleep lately."

My mouth dropped open and I glared at my cousin, who flushed and grinned sheepishly at me.

"Guys, are we going to see Dally, or what?" Pony said impatiently.

I felt a little bad for the kid; he looked really worried. It didn't really make sense to me, because he never seemed to really like Dally very much, but I guess he was still worried about him.

I jumped to my feet and stretched hugely, leaning back with my arms in the air to crack my back. My shirt lifted up a little bit, and, grinning like a maniac, Two Bit poked my showing stomach. Not expecting this, I let out a little shriek and giggled. A _giggle. _I didn't giggle; I glared at him, but smirked when he did nothing but smile widely back.

"Okay, guys," the nurse named Maggie said, stopping us before we all crowded into Dally's room. "I know you all want to see Dallas, but there are only allowed two at a time; those are doctor's orders."

Steve glared at her and opened his mouth to argue, but I slapped his arm and interrupted. The poor woman looked terrified, and little wonder; she was trying to stop a group of people containing seven large, tough-looking men. If I'd been her, I wouldn't have even attempted it.

"Yeah, that's fine," I told her. "Why don't you two go first?" I nodded to Ponyboy and Johnny. They both nodded, and the rest of us returned to our seats in the waiting room.

The other guys were talking and laughing now that they knew that Dallas was alright, but I didn't feel like joining in on the jokes. Instead, I picked up an outdated magazine and moved to the other side of the waiting room. After a moment, Mike joined me.

"What's going on?" he asked quietly, throwing an arm around my shoulders. "You're awfully quiet."

"I'm just tired," I shrugged. "I'll be fine once I get home and get into bed."

"Yeah, I bet," he agreed. "Do you mind telling me why you walked here? Didn't you leave with Tim?"

"Yes," I growled. I turned the page of the magazine so forcefully that it ripped. "He's an ass, though."

"Well I could have told you that," Mike said in an I-told-you-so-voice. "In fact, I think I did tell you that, if I remember correctly. I think all of the guys told you that he was an ass."

I glared at him, but didn't say a word. Finally, he sighed and removed his arm from around me. He got up to walk away, but turned back and looked down at me.

"You can do better than that, Katie," he said softly. "You know you can."

"Why do you hate Tim so much?" I asked, leaning back in my chair and glaring up at him. "Is it just because I like him?"

Mike shook his head slowly. "I don't know, Kate. I just have this really bad feeling about the guy, alright? There's something not right about him."

"Oh, go away," I snapped, turning back to my magazine.

Mike continued to look at me for a minute, but he eventually went back to sit beside Soda.

I read and re-read every article in the magazine while the guys took their turns visiting Dally. Every one of them came back out of the room grinning and shaking their heads in amusement. I smirked, but didn't move from my chair.

"Alright, you guys," the doctor said, coming out to the waiting room. "Visiting hours are over. I'm going to have to ask you all to leave now; you all can come back tomorrow."

"But Kate didn't get to go see Dal!" Everyone looked at Johnny, surprised that he had said anything. He usually didn't speak in front of strangers unless it was absolutely necessary.

I saw Nurse Maggie looking at me with interest from behind the nurse's desk. "It's fine," I said quickly, looking away from her. "I can come and see him tomorrow."

"But Katie -" Soda started, and I turned on him.

"I said I'll come tomorrow, okay?" I snapped. "Jesus, I'm tired and want to go to bed. Is that okay with everyone?"

The room was silent for a moment as everyone looked at me in shock, and then Two Bit let out a low whistle.

"Someone's cranky."

I glared at him, and he looked away quickly, not saying another word.

"Are you sure, Katie?" Darry asked. "I'm sure we could convince him to let you in for a minute, if you wanted to see Dal."

"No, I'm fine." I smiled up at him tiredly. "I really just want to go to bed."

He nodded. "Alright, let's get out of here." He turned to the doctor. "Tell him goodnight from _all _of us." I noticed that he stressed the 'all', and so did the doctor; he glanced at me, and I rolled my eyes.

"I'll do that," he said.

We walked back to the cars, and I crawled into the back with Soda. He put his arm around my shoulders, and I leaned into his chest, slipping into a light doze as Mike drove us home.


	15. Chapter 15

I woke up as we pulled into the driveway. I pushed away from Soda, and he grinned at me.

"You're awake," he said. "Good; I thought I was going to have to carry you up to bed."

I rolled my eyes and smiled, and clambered out of the back seat. My foot got caught in the seat belt, though, and I pitched forward onto the grass.

"Motherfucker," I growled, crawling to my feet amid a roar of laughter.

"You okay?" Soda managed to stop laughing long enough to ask me. I nodded, and he started laughing again.

"You guys can all go to hell," I grumbled, pushing myself back onto my feet, with some difficulty.

For some reason, my legs didn't want to cooperate with me. I took several slow steps towards the house, but stopped when I got to the front steps. I lifted my leg to step up, and lost my balance, almost falling on my face. Soda walked up behind me and scooped me up into his arms.

"Looks like I do need to carry you to bed," he laughed as he waited for Mike to unlock the front door. I was too tired to even argue; I laid my head on Soda's shoulder. Mike opened the door and stepped aside do Soda could get past.

"It's a good thing you're light," Soda commented as he carried me up the stairs. "Otherwise you'd be sleeping on the couch tonight."

"It's a comfy couch," I yawned as he laid me on the bed. "I would have been fine there."

"Go to sleep, Katie," he grinned, patting my head. He pulled a blanket up over me, and I fell asleep instantly.

I walked into the hospital the next day by myself. Darry, Mike, Sodapop and Steve had all had to go to work, Two Bit was off with some blonde that he'd met at the drive-in, and I hadn't been able to find Ponyboy and Johnny anywhere to ask them to come with me.

As I entered the waiting room from last night, I heard a loud commotion coming from down the hall. I rolled my eyes and shook my head, but I couldn't help but smile at the same time. I knew without a doubt that the ruckus was coming from Dallas's room.

As I neared the room, a nurse walked out into the hallway. She stopped in the doorway, and glared in.

"If you don't want those bandages changed, that's fine," she growled. "But don't you dare complain to me when those holes in your side are infected!"

Something flew past her head and hit the opposite wall. The woman looked fit to be tied. She slammed the door, and turned to see me standing in front of her with the bedpan in my hand.

"Hi," I said simply, trying to hold in a grin. I nodded towards the closed door. "I'm here to see Dallas."

Her mouth dropped open and she looked at me as though I were clinically insane. "I'm afraid that I can't let you in there," she said quickly. "That boy is a danger to himself and everyone else, too."

"Yes, I know," I sighed. "But I do really need to talk to him."

She looked at me for a moment, and then sighed. "Go ahead," she said, stepping aside. "But don't say I didn't warn you."

I just smiled at her. "Thank you."

The nurse walked down the hall, looking back at me every few seconds until she'd rounded the corner into the nurse's station. I took a deep breath and pushed open the door to Dallas' room.

"What part of stay the hell out do you people not understand?" came Dally's angry growl from inside.

I peeked around the corner of the door and saw him lying in the bed, his eyes closed. He was wearing a pair of jeans, the hospital gown thrown into the trash can beside the bed, and his bare torso was covered with bloody bandages.

"You know," I said, pushing the door open fully and walking in. "You really need to learn some manners. You really are the rudest person that I've ever met."

Dally's eyes popped open, and he turned his head to look at me. He just stared for a minute, and then his face hardened and his eyes narrowed.

"What the hell are you doing here?" he asked. "Are you not hanging off Tim anymore?"

"Excuse me?" I asked. "I do not hang off anybody. I dropped by to see how you were doing, but if you're going to be an asshole, I'll just leave."

I dropped the bedpan back on the bed and walked back out the door. I was halfway down the hall before I heard a woman at the other end yelling. I turned to see what her problem was, and I saw Dallas hurrying down the hall behind me, pulling a filthy shirt on over his head.

"You can't go anywhere -" the woman was running down the hall towards us.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?" I asked with my hands on my hips.

"I'm leaving," he said, glaring down at me. "I don't fucking need all this pity from anyone." He tried to walk around me, but I stopped him.

"Wait!" the woman called again.

"You'll do no such thing," I argued. "You're going back to your room."

"Oh, and you're going to make me?" he taunted.

"Please!" the little nurse had stopped several feet away, and was talking very fast, trying to find a way to stop Dally without actually going near him herself. "It's the doctor's orders -"

"Oh, would you shut up!" I snapped at her, finally. "I've got this; go deal with the rest of your patients."

The woman looked at me in shock for a moment, her mouth hanging open and making her look like a fish. Then she turned and hurried back down the hall. I watched her go until she'd disappeared back into a room, and then I looked back to Dallas. He was smirking down at me.

"What?" I snapped.

"It looks like you can scare some people," he chuckled. "I'm impressed."

"Good." I raised an eyebrow and pointed down the hall. "Now you, get back to your room."

"Are you going to make me?" he asked again, but this time it was more teasing than angry.

I smirked and grabbed his arm, turning him around and leading him back down the hallway. Surprisingly, he didn't fight me at all, and walked along beside me. I closed the door when we entered the room. He went back and sat on his bed and I leaned against the wall.

"What's this about your bandages?" I asked, noticing the pile of linen bandages that were piled on the bedside table. "Why won't you let the nurse change them?"

"I don't need her help," he frowned. "I'm not weak, Kate."

"I never said you were," I scoffed. "But she's right, Dal; you'll get an infection if they're not cleaned and dressed properly."

"Why do you care?" he snapped, glaring at me.

"Again, with the attitude?" I cocked an eyebrow. "Really?"

He just stared.

"Look," I said, rolling my eyes. "It's not like I hate you or anything, Dallas. I don't want you to get blood poisoning, that's for sure."

He looked at me, again, not saying anything, and then he pulled his shirt off.

"What are you doing?" I asked, surprised.

"You do it," he said simply. "I don't trust any of those bitches out there, so you do it for me."

I opened my mouth to object, but I stopped when I looked at him. His icy blue eyes were no longer hard and cold, but he looked at me with an emotion that, for the first time, made me actually kind of like Dallas Winston.

"Please?"

I nodded and pushed myself off the wall. I stood in front of Dallas, and began to unwind his old bandages. They were stiff with dried blood, and I grimaced. The smell of them was sickening.

"Were these not changed since yesterday?" I asked, already knowing the answer. He just shook his head, and I chuckled.

"What's so funny?" he asked.

"Yesterday Ponyboy and Johnny thought that you were dead from all of this -" I made a sweeping motion with my hand to encompass Dally's appearance, "- but I just realized that no accident is going to kill Dallas Winston."

"I'm that tough, huh?" He sounded pretty smug, and I grinned.

"No, you're stupid," I replied, holding back a laugh. "You're going to end up killing yourself with your damn stupid pride."

"And you were telling me to learn some manners." I was honestly surprised that he hadn't gotten mad at me.

"I'm just being honest," I replied.

Dallas hissed and leaned away from me when I pulled the bandage off his ribs.

"Oh, I'm sorry," I apologized, trying to be more gentle. "I really wish that you'd let a nurse do this; I'm scared I'm going to hurt you."

"It's fine," he said, trying to sound tough, but I could hear the pain behind his voice.

"Oh, it is not, Dally," I snapped. "Stop trying to be so fucking tough all the time. Can you try to be a normal person for the next twenty minutes, please?"

He didn't say anything, but I could feel him starting to relax a bit. Not much, but it was a start.

Finally, I pulled the last one of Dally's bandages off and looked at him. I grimaced at the sight in front of me; his entire torso was purple with bruising, and the side with the broken ribs was swollen and puffy. There were also two puncture wounds, where the bull he'd been riding had gored him.

"Jesus, you sure know how to give yourself a good going over," I murmured, running my fingers over his ribs. He sighed, and slumped a little. It worried me, and I looked up at him sharply. His eyes were closed. "You okay, Dally?"

He nodded, but didn't open his eyes. I took out the ointment that was on the table and opened it. The smell of it hit me and I gagged.

"Jesus!" I gasped. "That stinks."

He grinned at me and I smiled back. I used my fingers and dabbed the ointment onto the cuts and punctures in his skin, being careful not to press to hard. Then I took the clean bandages and began to wrap them back around him, making sure that they wouldn't slip off, but also that they weren't too tight.

"There," I said, standing back to admire my handiwork. "It's not as good as if one of the nurses would have done it, -" I looked at him pointedly "- but it's going to have to do."

"Thanks." Dallas pushed himself backwards until he was leaning back against his pillow.

"Do you want me to go?" I asked, sitting on the edge of his bed. "You look kind of tired."

He shook his head. "No, you can stay."

"Okay, well I'm going to stay sitting here, then, if you don't mind," I said. "My feet are killing me."

We sat in silence for a moment, and then Dally opened his eyes and looked up at me.

"Why?"

"Well I kind of walked across town to get here," I said, not thinking.

"Why didn't you take Tim's car?"

"Because Tim had it," I replied.

"Weren't you with Tim?" he looked me hard in the face.

"Jesus!" I cried, throwing my hands in the air. "Does everyone really need to know the details of my love life? We got in a fight, so I got out of the car and walked, okay?"

Dallas sat up suddenly, wincing in pain. I put a hand out to him, but he shoved it away angrily. I leaned back, wondering what had caused this sudden change in temper.

"You walked across town by yourself?" he yelled, glaring at me. "Are you a fucking idiot?"

My mouth dropped open, and I didn't know what to say. He continued to look at me like I was an idiot. He looked so angry that suddenly, I was angry, too.

"What the hell is your problem?" I yelled, jumping to my feet.

"My problem? My problem is that you walked completely across town by yourself," he snapped.

"I came to see you!" I cried. "That's why I walked here; I wanted to make sure that you were okay! I didn't walk for two hours for the fun of it, Dallas." I began to pace the room. "Jesus, Dally, most people would be happy to know that someone cares that much about them, but not you; no, you get mad because I was walking by myself. What the hell is wrong with you, man?"

Dally didn't say anything for a minute, and then said, "Katie, you could have gotten hurt."

"You walk by yourself all the time!" I accused him. "You're just a bloody hypocrite!"

"Do you know how many times I've been jumped?" he screamed, jumping from the bed as though there was nothing wrong with him. "Too many times, Katie. And I'm just a guy; you're a girl. You're in for something a little worse than a good beating if you get caught by a group of Socs."

I opened my mouth to argue again, but stopped then what he had said hit me. He was right; I wouldn't just get a black eye, or a nice little cut if I was jumped. I nodded jerkily, turning away when I felt tears prickle the back of my eyelids; I didn't want Dallas to see me crying. He heard me sniff, though, and he sighed.

"Katie, are you crying?"

"No," I replied a little too quickly.

Next thing I knew, Dallas was holding me to his good side. I couldn't hold back anymore. I buried my face in his shoulder and cried silently. His hand rubbed my back gently as I cried, and then, suddenly, we were both sitting on the bed.

I had finished crying, but Dallas kept me pressed to his side for a couple more minutes. Finally, I had to reach up and take his arm off of my shoulders. I kept his hand in mine, though, rubbing the pad of my thumb over his bruised knuckles. One knuckle, the ring finger, seemed to be worse than the rest. Without thinking, I lifted his hand and pressed a kiss to it. He drew in a sharp breath.

"What are you doing?" he asked, his voice tight.

I sat up, my face beat red. "I don't know," I replied quickly, giving him an embarrassed smile. "That's what mom used to do whenever I hurt myself, and it always seemed to work. I just thought I would try it."

He didn't say anything, but he pulled his hand out of my lap. I jumped to my feet quickly.

"I should probably go," I said quickly. "I have to go do some…grocery shopping."

Again, he didn't say anything, but nodded. I walked to the door.

"Katie?"

I jerked around, hitting the wall. "Yeah?"

"It worked." He lifted his hand a little in illustration.

I smiled. "That's good." I had to say, this new, softer Dallas was a little disconcerting. I turned to go, and again he called me back.

"Hey, Kate?"

"What, Dally?"

His face was hard again. "If you tell anyone about this, I'll have to break my rule about hitting a girl."

I grinned. "My lips are sealed."


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: Hey guys, thanks for the reviews. Thanks, especially, to musiclovebookssushianimals16, who caught my mistakes in the last chapter. Sorry about those; I wrote that chapter at 4:30 this morning, so I guess I wasn't all with it. Please keep reviewing; you guys are making me so happy. And just so you know, Katie and Tim are almost done, I promise. **

I went to visit Dallas every day, often walking in on him throwing a temper tantrum. The nurses walked on eggshells around him, and the doctors weren't much better.

"You have to stop letting him know you're scared of him," I told the nurses repeatedly. "He thinks it's funny."

"Well, he thinks wrong, then, doesn't he?" they would snap.

Personally, I agreed with Dally. It _was_ funny. But he was enjoying it way too much.

"You would think by now that they'd be used to me," he commented to me one morning, after making a young nurse run from the room crying.

I was standing in the doorway, having just arrived to witness the scene. The nurse had dropped the bandages on the bed before she'd left, and I sighed.

"Why can't you just, for once, be nice and let the poor girls do their job?" I asked, closing the door behind me.

"I'm never nice," he smirked.

"You were pretty nice the other day." He knew what day I was referring to; his face fell and he glared at me.

"I thought I said not to mention that again," he growled.

"Nope, you didn't," I grinned. "You told me that if I told anyone that you'd kick my ass."

"I said I would hit you, not kick your ass," he corrected.

"See!" I laughed. "You do remember."

Dallas glared at me, and I smirked back at him. I picked up the bandages.

"If you want me to do this then get your ass over here," I said. "I haven't got all day."

That made him grin, and he pushed back the blankets. I realized in that moment that Dally wasn't wearing pants. I flushed, but wouldn't satisfy him by looking away.

"You really couldn't get dressed?" I asked, carefully not looking any lower than his nipple-line. "Jesus, Dally, cover yourself up, man. I have a boyfriend."

Dally's scowl darkened. "Oh yes; how is Tim doing?" He still made no more to cover himself.

"I don't know," I replied, grabbing the sheets and throwing them into his lap. "I haven't seen him in a week."

"Why?"

"He's mad at me," I replied, starting the bandaging process.

"What could you have done to make him mad enough to stay away for a week?" he asked, looking genuinely surprised.

"The day this happened," I motioned to his injuries, "he wanted to go home and…well, you know, and I wouldn't. That's what we fought about."

"So…" Dallas looked like he was thinking too hard. "You pissed off your boyfriend because you'd rather see me in the hospital than go home and screw him?"

I blushed again, and nodded.

"But why?" he asked, turning to look at me. "Why even bother? I mean, you didn't even come in and see me that night."

_I'd intended to,_ I thought wryly to myself. If only Nurse Maggie hadn't freaked me out, I would have. Of course, I didn't want Dally to know what he'd done while unconscious.

"I wanted to make sure you were okay," I snapped. "Jesus, can I not do that? We're friends, aren't we?"

Dallas tenses at my outburst. His hands curled into fists at his side, but he didn't answer me. I sighed, and finished the bandaging.

"There," I said, standing up. "I'm done. Look, I need to head out; I've got things that I have to do."

"Yeah, alright." Dallas laid back in bed, keeping the sheets over him. He closed his eyes, and I left the room.

I walked down to the nurse's station, and set the bandages on the counter. One of the older nurses looked up at me, confused.

"I did Dally's dressing," I said. "Don't bother him any more than you have to."

"For two people who don't really like each other," said a voice behind me, "you sure seem to be spending a lot of time together."

I turned and saw Nurse Maggie smiling behind me.

"I'm just trying to help," I shrugged. "I know he's a real pain in the ass, sometimes."

"Not for you, he's not."

"I'm leaving." I said firmly, and I stalked out of the ward. Both nurses laughed.

I was in the kitchen, two days later, making supper. Mike was still at work, but he was off within the next hour, so I'd decided that I would have supper on the table for him when he got home. It was the least I could do; I didn't work, so my job was to keep the house clean and to cook the food. Back home, I would have found this degrading, but in the 60's, it just seemed natural, and I actually liked it. I guess I was the 'mom type' after all.

The door banged open, scaring me so badly that I almost dropped the chicken that I was putting in the oven.

"You here, Kate?" Tim roared from the living room. I was surprised; I hadn't seen him since the day of Dally's accident.

"I'm in the kitchen," I called back. I slid the chicken into the oven and turned to greet my boyfriend. I was surprised when he came around the corner.

"What are you doing?" I asked. "Why do you have Bobby?"

"I need to you watch the kid," he said, thrusting the baby at me. "Angela left him with me to go out."

I looked down at the baby in my arms. He grinned up at me, and I couldn't help but smile back at him, but then looked back at Tim.

"If she left him with you, then shouldn't you be watching him?" I asked. Tim smirked down at me.

"I'm not good with kids, babe," he said. "You like him, so just watch him for a little while for me, will you?"

Before I could say another word, Tim turned on his heel and stalked back out of the house. I stared after him, my mouth hanging open. Then I looked down at the child in my arms. He smiled up at me sweetly, and I hugged him to me.

"How can you be related to that idiot?" I asked him. The little boy smiled charmingly up at me, and then reached out and grabbed the front of my t-shirt, pulling it down to expose my breasts. He threw his head back and laughed hysterically. "Oh, there it is. Now I see the resemblance."

"Katie, I'm home!"

"You're late!" I called from the kitchen. "Get in here and eat before your supper gets cold."

Mike walked into the kitchen, but stopped dead in his tracks when he saw me sitting on the floor, feeding Bobby.

"Hey," I smiled up at him. "How was your day?"

"Good," he said slowly. "Katie, whose baby is that?"

"Angela's," I replied. "Tim wanted me to watch him."

He just looked at me for a minute, and shook his head before going to get a plate of food.

"What was that for?" I asked, standing up. Bobby remained on the floor, eating the pieces of chicken that I had diced up for him.

"Oh, come on, Katie!" Mike turned around and looked at me like I was an idiot. "I thought you were finally done with that idiot!"

"Don't call him that," I snarled. "He's not that bad, Michael. You just won't give the poor boy a chance."

"The poor boy?" Mike scoffed. "Are you actually hearing yourself right now? The poor boy; right. So where is he now, Kate? Huh? Where is he? Why are you taking care of his sister's kid?"

"Because men can't do the baby thing," I growled.

"Bullshit!" Mike yelled, scaring me. He scared Bobby, too; the baby began to cry. "You don't believe that, and I know you don't."

"Stop yelling!" I cried, picking up the screaming child. "You're scaring him."

"What's going on in here?"

Mike and I both turned to see Two Bit and Steve standing in the doorway. They looked back and forth between the two if us, looking concerned.

"Mike's being an asshole!" I exclaimed, looking at him accusingly.

"Why?"

"Because Katie is being a pathetic little shit!" Mike yelled again.

"Hey, whose kid?" Two Bit asked, nodding to Bobby, who was hiding his face in my shoulder.

"Angela Shepherd's," Mike said. "Tim came by and just dropped him off."

"Tim did?" Steve glared at me. "I thought you two were done."

"Well you thought wrong!" I snapped. I turned on my heel and took the baby into the living room, where I sat him on the floor. I sat with him, and played while trying to block out the conversation from the kitchen.

"Hey, Katie?" I looked up and saw Two Bit looking down at me. For the first time in my life, I was seeing Two Bit being completely serious.

"What do you want, Two Bit?" I turned back to the baby.

"You know that we all love you, right?"

"Sure, buddy."

"No, I'm serious." Two bit sat on the floor beside me, crossing his legs. "We do; every single one of us. None of us know why you're with Tim Shepherd, but, shoot, you just need to know that he's not a good guy. You're going to end up getting hurt by him."

"Two Bit," I said, breathing, so I could keep my temper. "I really appreciate your concern, but I can take care of myself."

"I know you can, Kitty." He grinned mischievously at me, and I couldn't help but grin back at him. "It's just that we all think there is someone around that would be better for you. Someone that you already know. You just need to give him a chance."

I smirked at him. "Two Bit, I love you, but I don't think that we'd work out," I joked.

He wasn't buying it. "You know who I mean."

"No," I frowned again. "Actually, I don't."

The door opened again, and Two Bit and I looked up. I was surprised to see Dally walk into the house, grinning. He stopped when he saw Bobby.

"Dally!" I cried, jumping up. I ran over to him and gave him a gentle hug, being careful not to hurt him. "When did you get out?"

"Just a little while ago," he replied, hugging me back. I turned and saw Two Bit looking smug on the floor. "Whose kid?"

"Oh, didn't you hear?" Two Bit asked innocently. "Katie had a baby. Isn't that lovely?"

"Shut it, Two Bit," I growled. "He's Angela's."

"Shepherd?" Dally looked at me, confused. "Why do you have him?"

"Why is everyone so concerned as to why I have the kid?" I snapped, pulling away from Dally. "Tim asked me to watch him, so he's here. Okay?"

I stalked over to where Bobby was, now laying on the floor, going to sleep. I picked him up gently and hurried upstairs with him. I changed the little boy into a pair of pyjamas, and lay in bed with him, singing softly under my breath.

"_Dragon tales and the "water is wide"_

_Pirate's sail and lost boys fly_

_Fish bite moonbeams every night_

_And I love you_

_Godspeed, little man_

_Sweet dreams, little man_

_Oh my love will fly to you each night on angels wings_

_Godspeed_

_Sweet dreams_

_The rocket racer's all tuckered out_

_Superman's in pajamas on the couch_

_Goodnight moon, will find the mouse_

_And I love you_

_Godspeed, little man_

_Sweet dreams, little man_

_Oh my love will fly to you each night on angels wings_

_Godspeed_

_Sweet dreams_

_God bless mommy and match box cars_

_God bless dad and thanks for the stars_

_God hears "Amen," wherever we are_

_And I love you_

_Godspeed, little man_

_Sweet dreams, little man_

_Oh my love will fly to you each night on angels wings_

_Godspeed_

_Godspeed_

_Godspeed_

_Sweet dreams"_

I looked down and saw the little guy sleeping peacefully beside me in the bed. I smiled softly, and laid my head down beside him.


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N: Okay, so I'm not overly pleased with the way this story is ending up. To me, I feel like I'm putting Dallas in a lot of situations that he normally wouldn't be in. Do you agree? Let me know what you think. **

**Dallas' POV**

It was well after midnight, and Katie still hadn't come back downstairs after storming away from them. He wasn't quite sure what he's done to make her so mad, but he wanted a way to fix it.

_What the hell is wrong with you? _He asked himself, shaking his head. _Since when do you care about anyone else?_

_ Since someone started caring about you, _some part of his subconscious answered.

Dally snorted and shook his head again. Great, now he was talking to himself. Just fucking wonderful.

Standing up and stretching out gingerly, Dallas looked around the living room. He'd been planning to stay here and sleep on the couch tonight, but Two Bit had beaten him to it, so he had to go over to the Curtis'.

He looked up the stairs, wondering if there was any way that Katie was still awake. Not likely, but he wanted to check, just in case. Walking quietly, to not wake anyone up, Dally crept up the stairs and down the hall to Katie's bedroom. The door was still open, so he peeked in, and smiled softly.

Katie was sprawled out across the bed with the baby tucked in close beside her. The little boy had his face buried in her chest, and her hand was resting on his stomach. Silently, Dally walked into the room. He picked up the blanket that was flung over the chair in the corner, and carefully laid it over top of them. With one more look down at the pair of them, Dallas backed out of the room and left.

**Katie's POV**

I lay in bed, so unbelievably comfortable that for a moment, I honestly thought that I had died and gone to heaven. And then I was slapped sharply in the cheek, and the thought disappeared.

I opened my eyes slowly and looked into the wide blue eyes of by boyfriend's nephew. He grinned at me and lifted his hand to slap me again. Quickly I put my own hand up and caught the blow in my palm, holding his hand.

"Oh no, you don't," I said to him, poking his noise so he laughed. "It's not nice to hit people, young Mr. Bobby. It's much easier to use your words first, and then, if they fail you, then you use your fists."

"Yeah, like that's going to happen." I rolled onto my back so I could see who was talking to me. Steve grinned at me from the doorway. "You do realize that's a Shepherd you're talking to, right?"

I grinned back at him. "Yes, I do. I figured that somebody's got to teach him some sense."

"Mike told me to come up here and wake you up," he said after a minute. "Breakfast is ready."

"Okay." I jumped up off the bed and scooped up the little boy, sitting him on my hip, and hurrying out of the room with Steve.

"You know, that look suits you," Soda said loudly when I entered the kitchen.

"What look?" I asked.

He grinned at me. "You know, the grungy mama look. Smeared make-up, bed hair and a baby on your hip."

"Go screw yourself," I laughed. "That's not funny."

The guys laughed though, and I couldn't help but join in. I handed Bobby over to Soda, who absolutely adored children, and began cutting up some pancakes for Bobby to eat. Again, I put the plate on the floor, and I took him so sit there.

"Jeez, he's not a dog, there, Katie," Two Bit said. "You shouldn't feed him on the floor."

"Where else am I supposed to do it?" I snapped, sitting down next to the little boy. "You guys have claimed my table."

He opened his mouth to reply, and then realized that I was just kidding with him. I grinned, and began to eat my breakfast.

I sat on the couch with Bobby passed out in my arms, staring at the television without actually seeing it. My hand was restlessly running over the arm of the couch in irritation.

It was almost eight o:clock, and there was still no sign of Tim, or even Angela, for that matter. I'd had Bobby for more than twenty-four hours and, although I loved having him around, I was furious that no one came looking for him yet. It made me not want to bring him back at all. Finally, I stood up.

"Alright," I said, lifting the baby so he was resting more comfortably on my shoulder. "I'm going to go put this little guy in bed; can you guys just listen for him?"

"Where are you going?" Mike asked, looking up at me.

"I'm going to go find Tim," I replied. "And God help him when I do."

I tucked Bobby into the bed, with a pillow on each side of him so he wouldn't roll out of bed, grabbed a sweater out of my closet, and hurried back downstairs. I grabbed the car keys off the hook by the door and ran outside.

I drove, first, to Tim's house, although I could almost guarantee that he wasn't going to be there. I left the car running while I ran to the door and knocked. A moment later, Angela pulled open the door and glared at me.

"What do you want?" she snapped.

"Where's your brother?"

"Not here," she sneered. I was through taking shit from this girl, and I grabbed her by the shirt, pinning her to the wall. Her face turned into a mask of shock.

"I'm not playing around here, Angela," I snapped. "Now tell me where the fuck Tim is."

"He's at Bucks." I let go of her, and left the house, but on the doorstep, I turned and looked at her.

"Are you coming to get your son anytime soon?"

"You can have him," she said, rubbing her shoulder absentmindedly.

My eyes snapped wide open. "What did you just say?"

She looked me in the eye. "I said you can have him. No one around here wants the kid, anyway."

I glared at her, absolutely disgusted. "Do you know what? Maybe I will. I will keep him." I turned on my heel and stormed back to my car.

Buck's was packed with drunks, like usual, and it took me a few minutes to finally find Tim. And when I did, my already hot temper flamed even higher. Tim was standing in the corner of the room, kissing a skinny, blonde girl and pressing his long, lean body against her. I stormed over to him, pushing people out of my way as I went, and grabbed him by the shoulder, spinning him to face me.

He looked surprised when he saw me, but when my hand connected with his face, the expression was turned to one of fury.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" I screamed at him. "You just leave me with a baby and come here to party it up with this skank?"

Tim grabbed me by the arm and dragged me outside, stumbling as he went down the steps. He led me far enough from the house that we wouldn't be heard, and then threw me against a car. I will admit, I was a little bit surprised by his act of violence, but it also angered me.

"What the fuck are you doing?" I shrieked. "You asshole! This is why you needed me to take Bobby yesterday? Huh? So you could come here and screw around on me?"

"Listen here," Tim growled, shoving me against the car again. The smell of alcohol that was radiating off his breath was sickening, and I had to look away. He grabbed my face, hard, and jerked it back to his. "It's your own fault that I had to come here to see Sarah."

"How is that my fault?" I snapped, shoving him away from me.

"Because you wouldn't fuck me," he said simply, caressing my cheek gently. I pulled away, but he stepped closer to me. "I'm a man, Katie. I have needs. If you're not there to do it, I have to find someone else; that's just the way that it works."

I continued to stare at him, unable to say a word. How had I actually not seen this coming? Was I that much of an idiot? Apparently so.

"But you're here, now, sweetheart," he crooned. "Let's go inside; I've got a room ready for me."

He took my arm and tried to lead me inside, but I pulled away from him, again.

"Are you actually serious?" I almost screamed. "I'm not going anywhere with you, you fucking pig. I'm going home, Tim. We're done."

I turned and started to walk away, but something hard knocked me into the side of the car, again. The breath rushed out of my lungs, and before I could fill them again, I was on the ground. Tim was standing above me, a piece of pipe in his hand.

"Just come upstairs," he said, less gently than before. "Come on, Katie. I don't want to hurt you."

Coughing, I climbed to my feet, only to be pinned to the car by Tim's body. He leaned down and caught my lips with his; I tried to push him off, but he was too heavy. I opened my mouth a little, and he stuck his tongue in my mouth. I bit it. With a strangled yelp, Tim pulled back and glared at me with one hand to his mouth. His eyes were glazed over with anger.

"You fucking little bitch!" Tim lifted the pipe and brought it down on the side of my head. The edges of my vision darkened, and I swayed on my feet. I saw him raise the pipe again, but didn't feel the impact. I slipped to the ground, and into darkness.


	18. Chapter 18

"Oh shit, look at her face!"

"Do you know who she is?"

"No idea, I don't think she's been here before."

"That's the girl who interrupted me and Tim last night!"

"Are you sure, Sarah?"

"Yeah, I'm sure," Sarah replied. "Jesus, did he do that to her?"

I felt someone's hand touching my face, and I winced in pain.

"Are you okay, honey?"

I opened my eyes, lifting my arm to block out the sunlight. I saw three women bending over me, looking at me in concern.

"What time is it?" I asked. My throat rasped painfully, but I tried not to pay it any attention.

"It's almost lunch time, sweetheart," the blonde that had been with Tim last night replied. "Can you stand up?"

I nodded, and struggled to get to my feet. I tried not to show how much pain I was actually in, but I couldn't hold back the groan when Sarah reached out and touched the side of my face. I pulled away from her quickly, but the sudden movement made me dizzy, and I fell back to the ground.

"We need to get you to the hospital," said one of the other girls.

I shook my head frantically. "No, I just need to go home. I'll be fine."

"No." I looked up, and Sarah had her hands on her hips. "You need to go to the hospital, and we are taking you there."

She and her friend, another blonde, bent down and, as gently as possible, lifted me to my feet. They led me to an old Buick.

"What about my car?"

"You can come back and get it later," said the smaller blonde. "Right now, we'll just worry about you."

The girls all piled into the car and drove me to the hospital. I expected them to just drop me off and leave again, but all three got out of the car and led me inside.

The woman at the front desk looked at me, her mouth hanging open. "Are you okay?"

"I'm doing just peachy," I mumbled. I was feeling worse and worse with each passing minute.

"Here," the front desk clerk said, coming out from behind the desk. "Follow me."

She led us down the hall to the trauma ward, and to an empty room. I recognized it as the room that Dallas had been in up until a day ago. I smiled at the coincidence as I was lowered onto the bed.

A few moments later, the girls were ushered from the room, and the doctor came in with two nurses to check me over.

"Katie?"

I looked up and, with some difficulty cause by a swollen eyelid, I located Nurse Maggie. I smiled sheepishly at her.

"Missed me?" I asked.

"What the hell happened to you?" she asked.

"Wait a minute," the other nurse said, peering at my face. "Ain't you that girl that kept coming to see that good-for-nothing hood?"

I was too sore to be angry with her for calling Dally a 'good-for-nothing hood', so I just nodded. She and Maggie began slowly peeling my clothes off while the doctor waited in the corner, writing on a chart.

"Is there anyone that we can call for you, Miss…?"

"The same as Dally," I said quietly. I could feel myself starting so slip into unconsciousness again. "Just call the Curtis'." The doctor nodded and left the room.

"Did he do this to you?"

"Who?"

"Dallas Winston?"

I was horrified. "No!" I cried. "No way! Dally would never hit a girl."

The nurse looked at me as though I was insane. "I'm sure he wouldn't."

The nurses worked together to wipe the blood and dirt off of my body. I was surprised by how much of it there was; I'd known that I was bleeding, but I hadn't known how much.

"Who was it, Katie?" Nurse Maggie asked. "Who raped you?

I had almost dozed off, but that one word brought me back with a jolt. "Raped? I wasn't raped."

She looked down at me sympathetically, and patted my hand. "Yes, honey, you were."

About an hour later, I heard the sound of feet pounding down the hallway. A moment later, Mike crashed through the door and into my room. Maggie looked at him with an open mouth, but moved into the hallway once she recognized him. Two bit, Darry, Steve and Sodapop came in, all at once, and gaped when they saw me.

"Katie," Mike whispered, walking slowly to the edge of my bed. "Holy shit, Katie, honey, what happened?"

I shrugged and tried to smile, but my face hurt too bad to move it much. "I guess I'm not as tough as I thought I was."

I saw a flash of blonde behind the rest of the gang, and tried to look away before Dallas saw my face. I'd asked Maggie for a mirror, so I now knew the extent of the damage. My right eye was swollen shut and bright red; there were gashed and bruised all over my face and arms, and my neck was black with bruises. Those were just what could be seen; my breasts, stomach, and between my legs were bruised badly, too.

Apparently, I hadn't looked away fast enough.

"Fuck!" Dallas' eyes were wide and horrified, but they quickly narrowed and darkened with anger. A moment later, he was gone.

"Where is he going?" I asked weakly.

"I haven't got a clue," Mike said, brushing the hair out of my eyes.

It was quiet for a moment before I heard a faint, "I do."

We all looked at Steve, and he, too, stalked out of the room.

"Am I that hideous?" I asked, trying to lighten the mood.

Soda answered honestly; "Yes."

My shoulders slumped, and I leaned back against the pillows. I heard a set of footsteps coming closer to the door, but I knew from the sound of them that they were the doctor's.

"Excuse me?" he said, sticking his head in the door. "Which one of you is responsible for Miss MacLean?"

"I am." Mike stood up, and followed him out of the room.

Darry sat in the chair in the corner, not taking his eyes off me, and Soda looked unsure of what to do. Two Bit walked up and sat on the side of my bed.

"I told you he was going to hurt you," he said seriously. "I just never imagined that it would be this badly."


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N: Hi everybody! I apologize profusely for the time it took to get this chapter updated! I computer completely broke down on me, and when I got it fixed, my internet was down and I just recently got it up again. Not trying to give you excuses, but those are my reasons. Thank you for everyone who has waited this long to keep reading, and I hope you enjoy it. If there's anything that you would like me to write about, either for this story or another one, just let me know and I'll see what I can do. **

I had been in the hospital for a full week, and I hated every minute of it. Once the reality of what had happened hit me, I was completely disgusted with myself; first, for being so stupid and actually liking the guy, and second, because I wasn't able to stop him.

I also had never felt more alone in my life. I wasn't _physically _alone of course; Mike and Ponyboy and Johnny and Two Bit all visited me daily, and Soda, Steve and Darry came whenever they could get off work before visiting hours were over. Tim even tried to visit me, but I had lucked out, and when Tim had gotten past the nurses and doctor, he had Darry to deal with. Darry had stepped out into the hall and closed the door behind him, and had come back in a few moments later, nursing the knuckles on his right hand.

Nurse Maggie and I also became friends during my stay. She spent much of her day in my room with me, doing my assessments much slower than usual so we could talk. She made my time without visitors bearable.

I was still ecstatic, though, the day that I was allowed to go home. Mike had taken the day off work and had come to pick me up. I had a small bag of belongings that they had brought me, and it wasn't the least bit heavy, but Mike insisted that I 'wasn't in any shape to be carrying anything'. It was no use in telling him that I was okay; he acted as though I was some type of bomb that was going to go off at any moment.

I walked through the front door of the house, and was immediately brought to the ground by something wrapping around my knees. I sat up and saw little Bobby sitting beside me, grinning like a maniac, and I began to smile, too, the first real smile since I'd gone to see Tim.

"Hey, there, little guy!" I laughed, scooping him up and hugging him tight to me. "How are you?"

He sat in my lap and snuggled into my chest, falling asleep almost instantly.

"Well, would you look at that," Ponyboy whistled. "That kid hasn't slept in a week, and you walk in and he passes right out. What do you have that we don't?"

"Boobs," Two Bit answered, coming from the kitchen with a beer in his hand. "If I could go to sleep with that kind of pillow every night, I'd sleep like a baby, too."

The guys laughed, and I looked down. I smiled; Bobby _did _have his head resting on my chest. I kissed the top of his head and began to climb to my feet, being careful both to not wake the baby or hurt myself in the process. I moved to the couch, and settled in more comfortable, cuddling him close.

"So Angela never came for him?" I asked.

Pony shook his head. "No," he said softly.

"I don't know how someone could just give their baby away," I growled softly, looking at the peacefulness of the baby in my lap. "It's disgusting."

"I think my parents would have," Johnny said quietly. "If they'd had anyone to give me to."

We were quiet for a minute; I'd completely forgotten about Johnny's parents, and now I felt like a douche for bringing it up.

"We love you, Johnny," Ponyboy said, wrapping an arm around his friend's shoulders. "We all do."

That evening, the gang was piled into the living room, watching a movie on television. Bobby was upstairs sleeping, and I was relaxed into Soda's side, my head on his shoulder.

We'd had a bit of a party that evening. The Curtis' along with Two Bit, Steve and Johnny had come to the house for supper and drinks, and we laughed and joked, just like old times. The only person that was missing was Dallas. I hadn't seen him since that day at the hospital; I guess that I was still too ugly for him to look at me.

I'd pretended not to notice his absence all evening, but as we sat on the couch, I felt the alcohol finally start to hit me. Suddenly, I didn't care if the others would laugh at me. I stood up abruptly, almost knocking over the coffee table, and turned to face them all, my face set in a scowl. They all looked up at me, surprised.

"Where the hell is Dallas?" I asked angrily. I could feel tears threatening to spill out of my eyes, but I held them back with practiced ease. "Why isn't he here? Am I still that ugly? I know it's not pretty-" I gestured at my face "- but surely Dally's seen worse than this before. Can he not stand looking at me?"

Everyone stared at me, mouths hanging open. Johnny looked like he was going to cry. Finally, after exchanging a look with Darry, Soda stood up.

"Dally's in the cooler," he said, walking over to me. He tried to put an arm around me, but I pulled away from him.

"What?" I looked dumbly up at him. "Why? When? What the hell did he do?"

"The day that he left the hospital he went looking for Shepherd," Steve told me. "I went with him. We found him at The Dingo."

"What did you do?" I asked, feeling a more than a little nauseous. "Steve, what did you guys do?"

"We kicked the shit out of him," he replied, shrugging like it was nothing. "Well, actually, Dallas kicked the shit out of him; I didn't really get a chance."

"That's why you aren't in jail?" I asked, refusing to sit down when Soda brought me back to the couch.

"Well, no," Steve looked at Soda, wondering if he should keep going.

"Keep going," I snarled. "What else happened, Steve?"

"As the cops pulled in, I tried to pull Dal away, but he shoved me out of his way," Steve continued. "It was like he didn't even realize they were there."

"What did he do?" I whisper-screamed. I was surprised at that; Dallas always knew when the cops were around. It was like he had some kind of sixth sense.

"He pulled a blade," Steve said, shrugging again. "I honestly thought that he was going to kill him. He would have, if the cops hadn't got to him in time."

"You didn't stop him!" I was furious. "What if he had killed him? He'd get the chair for that, Steve!"

"Did you not hear me?" Steve snapped. "The man had a blade. I'm not idiot enough to go near Dallas Winston when he's got a blade on him."

I felt my face pale, and I flopped back down on the couch because my legs couldn't cold me up anymore. I covered my face with my hands.

"So what now?" I asked. "How long is he in for?"

"Three months," Darry told me.

My head snapped up again. "Only three months? For attempted murder?"

"Dally claimed that he only wanted to cut him a little bit," Darry explained, smirking a little because he knew that was a lie. "And then that nurse, Maggie, I think her name is, went in to the station and talked to them. Told them all about what happened with you, and the 'circumstances causing his inappropriate behaviour'. They let him away with that, after they went into the hospital and saw what happened to you."

"They came to see me?"

"Only for a minute," Soda said. "You were sleeping. I was there, too, so I told them what happened."

"And Tim?"

"Shepherd was arrested later that week." Steve said. "He's in for two months."

I nodded. It wasn't nearly long enough for me, but it would do.


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N: I deserve a severe beating for leaving an update this long, I really do. Anybody who feels up to it is more than free to come to PEI to kick my ass. The reason for taking so long? I wanted to stick as close to the book's plot line as I could for now, and I lost my copy of the book. I had to go buy another one after weeks and weeks of looking for mine. So please forgive me. **

**As always, I do not own the Outsiders. Or anything else, for that matter. **

Dallas being jail was worse than I could have possibly imagined. I never knew that I could miss someone so much, but I was feeling absolutely sick, all the time. The only thing that made me feel better at all was little Bobby. Angela had never come back to get him, so I reported her to the police for abandonment, and applied for adoption. After a social made several trips to the house to visit and chat with me, I was determined an eligible candidate for Bobby's guardianship. All that was needed was Angela's signature, and that was easily obtained. When I'd showed up at their house one afternoon the girl had cursed me up one side and down the other for having her brother thrown in jail, but once I'd told her what I was there for, she was as sweet as pie. She signed all of the papers for me, and I was on my way.

That night, we'd had a celebratory supper. All of the boys came over, and afterwards, when Bobby was asleep, we all sat around the table, playing cards and joking and laughing. But even surrounded with all of my friends, I missed Dallas.

"Katie? Katie!"

I looked up from my hand of cards to see that all of the boys were looking at me.

"What?" I asked, frowning. "Do I have something on my face?"

"No…" Mike said, a smile starting at the corners of his lips. "It's just that it's been your turn for almost two minutes now."

"Oh," I replied, blushing. "I'm sorry; I guess my mind's wandering like crazy tonight."

Soda and Steve snorted, and the rest of the gang joined in the laughter.

"What?" I asked, completely confused, and even Darry began to laugh.

"Why don't you just go see him, Katie?" Soda said, grinning madly at me. "We all know that you want to."

My face turned crimson. "I wasn't thinking about Dallas."

"Of course you weren't," Two Bit said mock-seriously. "I know that I don't look like that at all when I'm thinking about any of my blonde girls."

"Oh, shut up!" I snapped. My cheeks flamed; I hadn't ever been this embarrassed in my life.

"Seriously, though," Darry said. "Go and visit him. I'm sure that it would cheer him up a bit, too."

"Yeah, he's been pretty snippy every time we've gone to see him," Pony added. "Right, Johnny?"

"Wait a minute," I said, laying my cards down on the table. "Have all of you gone to see Dallas?" No one replied, but they all exchanged looks with one another. "And no one invited me to come along?"

"Well, the thing is," Darry said, "that the jail's not exactly a great place to take a kid, and any time we've gone, there's been no one else to keep an eye on him."

"But really, I think it would cheer Dal up a lot if you went to see him," Steve said.

"Fine. You boys are on Bobby duty tomorrow, and I'll go and see him."

"Promise?" Mike asked. "I mean, you've been really cranky, and I think you'd feel better if you saw him."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Yes, I promise. Tomorrow morning, I will go to the jail and I will talk to Dallas."

All of them grinned. "Good."

The next morning, I woke up to Two Bit and Bobby jumping on top of me. Bobby was sitting beside my head, bouncing on his bum and drumming on my breasts and Two Bit was straddling my legs bouncing so hard that my entire body was lifting off the bed.

"What the Hell are you doing?" I snapped, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. "What time is it?"

"It's nine-thirty," Two Bit announced, still bouncing. "And we're waking you up."

"Well I'm awake!" I cried, slapping his leg. "So get off of me."

With a grin, he jumped up and stood beside me in bed. Bobby took his place, sitting on my legs, and tried to bounce me as well as Two Bit had done. His look of utter concentration made me burst into laughter, and I leaned forward and scooped him into a hug. He squealed with laughter as I lifted his shirt and pretended to eat his belly.

"And what are you and I going to do today, little buddy?" I asked, laughing with him.

"Well," Two Bit answered. "Bobby is going to have a day with just us guys. And you are going to see Dally."

"Oh, yeah."

I had forgotten about my promise to the guys, and I groaned when I realized that I had no choice but go to the jail and visit Dallas.

"Oh, come on, Kitty," Two Bit grinned. "Give us the baby and get ready to go."

"Fine."

I kissed Bobby on the cheek and handed the reluctant child back to Two Bit, who tucked the child under his arm like a football and ran from the room.

"Two Bit!" I screamed loudly. "Be careful with him!"

"Don't worry," he called back. "I won't drop him."

I shook my head and crawled out of bed and went to the closet. I had no idea what I wanted put on; what does one wear when visiting friends in prison? I settled on a pair of skinny jeans and a long, floral printed tank top with a pair of red leather flats. I dressed quickly, and then did my hair, pulling my thick curls into a high ponytail with a pouf in front. I did my make-up neutrally, and headed downstairs.

A whistled from the kitchen caught my attention, and I turned to see Steve sitting at the table. I rolled my eyes at him, but walked in to say hello.

"Well, well, you're looking awfully pretty to be going to a jail," he said, raising an eyebrow at me. "That is where you are going, right?"

"Yes," I rolled my eyes again. "I'm going to see Dallas. I just pulled on some clothes; these are nothing special."

"Yeah, okay." He grinned, and ducked as I swatted at him.

"Alright, y'all," I said. "I'm heading off. I'll be about an hour or so, and so help me God, if that child had one scratch on him when I get back, there will be hell to pay. Understand?"

The three guys around the table nodded solemnly and Bobby, watching them, joined in. I grinned at him and kissed his cheek once before heading towards the door.

"Have fun!" Two Bit yelled. "And give old Dal all of our love."

"Well, maybe not _all _of your love," Steve amended, and the rest of the guys laughed.

I rolled my eyes and laughed as I left the house.

I sat in front of the prison for a full fifteen minutes before finally plucking up the courage to get out of the car and go inside. The officer sitting at the front desk glanced up as I walked through the door and then put his head back down, but then did a double take and stared at me with his mouth hanging open slightly.

"Hi," I said, feeling slightly awkward.

"Hello, there, little lady," was the reply. "Are you lost or something?"

I frowned at him. "No, I'm actually here to visit someone."

"You're here to visit someone _here_?" He seemed genuinely shocked that I would want to visit somebody.

"Yes," I replied. "I would like to see Dallas Winston, please."

The officer stayed seated in his chair behind the deck and stared at me for another moment, and then started to laugh.

"You can't be serious!" he roared mirthfully, holding his overly-large stomach. "A sweet little thing like you has got no reason to be visiting scum like Dallas Winston."

My temper flared and, without thinking, I took a couple quick steps towards the desk. I slammed my hand down on the desk top and glared down at the officer, who had stopped laughing and looked completely shocked.

"Look here," I growled at him. "It had taken me weeks to finally get here, and now that I am here, I am not leaving without seeing Dally first. And don't say another word; just go get him."

"Yes, ma'am." He stood up shakily from the desk and walked around it. "Follow me."

I followed the police officer through the back of the prison to where the holding cells were. We passed several that were occupied, and I was starting to regret my choice of clothing. I hadn't thought that my jeans were too tight, or that my shirt was too low cut, but apparently after being locked behind bars for several months, being near any woman was too much for any man to handle. There were several cat calls, and a couple of men made very vulgar comments as I passed. I scowled at them, but didn't say a word.

"I'm some sorry about them, miss," the officer said. "Those boys have been in here for quite some time, and they've never seen a lady back here before."

"It's fine," I replied. "Don't worry about it; it's nothing that I haven't heard before."

He looked back at me with a raised eyebrow. "You don't look like you're used to these kinds of men."

"I'm friends with Dallas Winston," I replied wryly. "Of course I'm used to these kinds of men."

He nodded, a small smile playing on his lips. "Yes, I suppose you'd have to be. Well, he's just around the corner; last cell on the right."

I nodded and thanked him. I took a deep breath and turned the corner, regretting it immediately.

"Well, hello there, Kitten." Tim said, leaning against the bars of his cell. "I thought I heard you. Come to visit me, have you?"

"Like hell I did," I muttered as I edged past him, trying my best not to look at the bastard.

"You keep your eyes to yourself, Shepard!" growled a familiar voice. I smiled when I heard it, and hurried to the end cell. Dallas was standing just inside, naked from the waist up, scowling at me. "What the Hell are you doing here?"

My smile disappeared instantly. "What, not happy to see me?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest. "The guys seemed to think differently."

For the first time, I saw a slight flush creep up Dally's face, and his scowl deepened. "This is no place for a lady," he snapped.

I snorted. "I think you've been in here too long, Dal," I told him. "You do remember who I am, right?"

That earned me a bit of a grin, but it was quickly returned to the scowl. "You know what I mean; this isn't really the kind of place for a woman to be walking around; especially in those clothes. What the Hell were you thinking, wearing those?"

"Wearing what?" I asked, looking down.

"Don't look down!" he hissed. "It just makes your shirt even lower."

I smirked at him. "Been a while, has it Dal?"

"Longer than I'd like it to be," he muttered, and I laughed. He smirked back at me, and I suddenly felt like I had my Dallas back. "So what's new with you?"

"Not much," I replied. "I am now a mother."

Dallas frowned. "I know I've been in here for a while," he said, "but it hasn't been that long."

I snorted. "I adopted Bobby."

All traces of amusement left his face instantly. "You still have Shepard's kid? Are you insane?" he yelled. "Do you forget who the kid's uncle is?"

"No, I don't," I snapped, glaring at him. "I want to make sure that he'll never be like that. He's too sweet of a kid. And please stop yelling at me; I'm not in the mood."

To my surprise, he listened. "I hope you know what you're doing," he said.

The officer who had let me in walked back around the corner. "Time's up, miss," he said. "Let's go."

I hesitated, not wanting to leave just yet. "Try to be good, Dally," I said quietly, looking him right in the eye. "Maybe you'll get out before Tim."

"And why would you want that?" he asked, taking a step closer.

I blushed, and looked down, placing my hand on the bars. "I just feel safer when you're there."

I felt his hand come down on top of mine, and I looked up. His deep blue eyes bore into mine. "He will _never _touch you again," he said softly. "I promise."

I swallowed and nodded. Dally took his hand back, and I turned to leave.

When the officer had shut and locked the door to the back of the prison, he turned and looked at me, shaking his head.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"I don't know what it is about you," he said. "But Winston is never like that. I think that's the first time I've ever seen emotion on the boy's face."

I felt my own face heat up, and I turned and left. The drive home was longer than it should have been.


End file.
